The storm, which originates in the tropics, pursues its curving way now N. W., then N. E., and again north, to the Arctic circle, and, perhaps, around the magnetic pole, over gulf, and continent, and ocean, _occupying one third the time of a lunation, and two changes, perhaps, in its progress_, without any perceptible or conceivable influence from her. Yet every inhabitant of mother-earth, influenced by _coincidences remembered_, and uninfluenced by _exceptions forgotten_, looks up within his limited horizon, and devoutly expects from the agency of some phase of the moon, a change for the special benefit of his _dot_ upon the earth's surface. Upon how many of these countless dots is the moon at a particular phase, or relative distance from the sun, to change fair weather to foul, or foul to fair? Upon none. The storms keep on their way;--the wet spells, and the dry spells, the cold and the hot spells alternate in their time, and though the moon turns toward them in passing, her dark face, her half face, or her full orb (the gifts of the sun, which confer no power), they do not heed her. They are originated, and are continued, by a more potent agent. They are the work of an atmospheric mechanism, as _ceaseless_ in its operation as _time_, as _regular_ as the _seasons_, _as extensive as the globe_. Indeed, it seems as if it was expressly designed by the Creator that the moon should not interfere materially with this atmospheric machinery. She is the nearest orb; her influence would be controlling and continuous; would follow her monthly path from south to north, and with changes too violent, and intervals too long; and would interfere with the regular fundamental operation in the trade-wind region, where she is _vertical_. Aside from the attraction of gravitation, therefore, she seems to have been so created as to be incapable of exerting any influence. She is without an atmosphere; the rays which she reflects are polarized, and without chemical or magnetic power; and, if it be true that Melloni has recently detected heat in them, by the use of a lens three feet in diameter, which could not previously be effected, its quantity is exceedingly small, and incapable of influence. Doubtless, the attraction of her mass is felt upon the earth, as the tides attest; and upon the atmosphere as well as the ocean. But the atmosphere is comparatively _attenuated_, and exceedingly so at its upper surface. Her attraction, therefore, although felt, is not influential. She seemed, to Dr. Howard, to produce in her northing and southing, a lateral tide which the barometer disclosed, but owing to the attenuated character of the atmosphere, neither the sun nor moon create an easterly and westerly tide, that is observable, except with the most delicate instruments. Sabine is believed to have detected such a tide by the barometer, at St. Helena, of one four thousandth of an inch. But even this _infinitesimal influence_ may prove an error upon further investigation.