1417. The study of atmospherical changes has, in all ages, been more or less attended to by men engaged in the culture of vegetables, or the pasturage of animals; and we, in this country, are surprised at the degree of perfection to which the ancients attained in this knowledge; but it ought to be recollected, that the study of the weather in the countries occupied by the ancients, as Egypt, Greece, Italy, and the continent of Europe, is a very different thing from its study in an island situated like ours. It is easy to foretell weather in countries where months pass away without rain or clouds, and where some weeks together, at stated periods, are as certainly seasons of rain or snow. It may be asserted with truth, that there is a greater variety of weather in London in one week, than in Rome, Moscow, or St. Petersburgh in three months. It is not, therefore, entirely a proof of our degeneracy, or the influence of our artificial mode of living, that we cannot predict the weather with such certainty as the ancients; but a circumstance rather to be accounted for from the peculiarities of our situation.
