To bring within the limits of a popular pamphlet a notice of the
various phenomena classed under the head of Meteorology, it has been
necessary to exercise the utmost brevity. Brief, however, as the
treatment has been, reference has been made to the sciences of Heat,
Light, Electricity, Magnetism, Gravitation, Astronomy, Chemistry,
Geography, and Geology, thus corroborating the testimony of Sir John
Herschel, who states that “it can hardly be impressed forcibly enough
on the attention of the student of nature that there is scarcely any
natural phenomenon which can be fully and completely explained in all
its circumstances without a union of several—perhaps of all—the
sciences; and it cannot be doubted that whatever walk of science he may
determine to pursue, impossible as it is for a finite capacity to
explore all with any chance of success, he will find it illuminated in
proportion to the light which he is enabled to throw upon it from
surrounding regions. But, independently of this advantage, the glimpse
which may thus be obtained of the harmony of Creation, of the unity of
its plan, of the theory of the material universe, is one of the most
exalted objects of contemplation which can be presented to the
faculties of a rational being. In such a general survey he perceives
that science is a whole whose source is lost in infinity, and which
nothing but the imperfection of our nature obliges us to divide. He
feels his nothingness in his attempts to grasp it, and he bows with
humility and adoration before that Supreme Intelligence who alone can
comprehend it, and who ‘in the beginning saw everything that He had
made, and behold it was very good.’”
J. AND W. RIDER, PRINTERS, LONDON.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Transcriber’s note:
Footnotes moved to end of paragraph.
All scale values in illustration captions retained. The value may
not be visually correct.
All fractions regularised to numerator/denominator.
Page 3, ‘Reaumur’s’ changed to ‘Réaumur’s,’ “Réaumur’s scale”
Page 9, closing single quote changed to double quote.
Page 12, full stop appended to illustration caption, “Scale about
1/20.”
Page 16, full stop appended to illustration caption, “9.”
Page 17, semicolon changed to full stop, “...it has never been
frozen.”
Page 23, first footnote changed from “8 R = 18 F.” to “8 R = 50 F.”
Page 27, ‘vice versâ’ changed to ‘vice versa,’ “...proportion, and
vice versa,...”
Page 30, dash changed to space, “29·500 inches.”
Page 34, ‘Hook’ changed to ‘Hooke,’ “...invented by Dr. Hooke.”
Page 37, ‘Aneriod’ changed to ‘Aneroid,’ “...by means of Barometer
or Aneroid,...”
Page 39, space changed to stop, “...between nine and ten p.m.”
Page 42, space inserted between ‘no’ and ‘less,’ “...at no less
than 212 miles.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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