CLIMATE, in geography, a space upon the surface of the terrestrial globe, contained between two parallels, and so far distant from each Other, that the longest day in one differs half an hour from the longest day in the other paral lel. The difference of climates arises from the different inclination or obliqui ty ofthe sphere ; the ancients took the parallel wherein the length of the long est day is twelve hours and three quarters for the beginning of the first climate; as to those parts that are nearer to the equa. tor than that parallel, they were not ac counted to bein any climate,eitherbecause they may, in a loose and general sense, be considered as being in a right sphere, though, strictly speaking, only the parts under the equator are so; or because they were thought to be uninhabited by reason of the heat, and were besides unknown. The ancients, considering the diversity there is in the rising and setting of the heavenly bodies, especially the sun, and, in consequence thereof; the difference in the length of the days and nights in different places, divided as much of the earth as was known to them into cli mates : and instead of the method now in use, of setting down the latitude of places in degrees, they contented them selves with saying in what climate the place under consideration was situated. According to them, therefore, what they judged the habitable part of the northern hemisphere was divided into seven cli mates, to Which the like number of south. ern ones corresponded. A parallel is said to pass through the middle of a cli mate, when the longest day in that paral lel differs a quarter of an hour from the longest day in either of the extreme pa rallels that bound the climate : this pa rallel does not divide the climate into two equal parts, but the part nearest to the equator is larger than the other, be cause the farther we go from the equator the less increase of latitude will be suf ficient to increase the length of the long est day a quarter of an hour.
Some of the moderns reckon the dif ferent climates by the increase of hour in the length of the longest day, be. ginningat the equator, and going on till they come to the polar circle towards the pole ; they then count the climates by the increase of a whole natural day, in the length of the longest day, till they come to a parallel, under which the day is of the length of fifteen natural clays, or half a month ; from this parallel they proceed to reckon the climates by the increase of half or whole months in the artificial day, till they come to the pole itself, under which the length of the day is six months. Those between the equator and the polar circles are called hour climates : and those between the polar circles and the poles monthly climates. Vulgarly, the term climate is bestowed on any country or region differing from one another, either in respect of the seasons, the qua. lity of the soil, or even the mannersof the inhabitants, without any regard to the length of the longest day.