From the nature of the facts that form the subject of meteorological research, it might be inferred that they must, in all ages of the world, hat e attracted the atten tion of mankind. The diversified appearances of the sky, the changes in the temperature of the air, and the other vicissitudes in the state of the weather, can hardly fail to strike even the most careless obsert er ; nor does it require any great intellectual exertion to perceive that these changes have an immediate and powerful in fluence, not only on the feelings and comfort of sentient beings, but also on the vegetable productions of the earth. To men in a rude state of society, such pheno mena would be peculiarly interesting. Necessarily led, from their employments and mode of living, to spend a great proportion of their time in the open air, they would have frequent opportunities of observing the va rious appearances that preceded any material change in the state of the atmosphere, while, from the want of those conveniences which are enjoyed only in a state of comparative civilization and re finement, their comfort, as well as their curiosity, would prompt them to recol lect every circumstance that seemed to predict the ap proach of such changes. We find, accordingly, that from the earliest times these phenomena have excited a general interest in all countries, and in every stage of society ; nor is there any other subject, perhaps, on which popular maxims have been so numerous or so universally prevalent.
The first attempt to collect and reduce to any thing like a systematic form, the various prognostications of the weather, is to be found, we believe, in the writings of Aristotle, and his disciple Thcophrastus. Long be fore their time, indeed, the Egyptians and other eastern nations, had recorded many interesting facts regarding atmospherical phenomena ; but they appear to have considered these only as a branch of astronomy or as trology. Aristotle, in his book de Meteoris, treats the subject as a separate science, and in addition to the observations of his predecessors, records also a variety of his own, bearing evident marks of all that accuracy and acumen for which he was so eminently distin guished. In as far as observation is concerned, few were better qualified than he was to conduct meteoro logical researches, and we have only to examine his remarks on dew, to perceive how nearly he approached on some subjects, to the discoveries of more enlightened times. Unacquainted, however, as he was, with both the chemical and mechanical constitution of the atmos phere, his speculations were often necessarily vague, fanciful, and inconclusive ; and notwithstanding all his ingenuity and industry, meteorology, as a science, could hardly be said at that period to have had an existence.
The more profound speculations of Aristotle, were succeeded by the treatise of his pupil Theophrastus, in which he collected, and arranged under distinct heads, the commonly received opinions on the subject of me tcorological phenomena. The work consisted of four general divisions, viz.—the prognostications of rain, of wind, of storms, and of fair weather; and it may be inferred from these titles, that if the treatise was less scientific than that of his master, it was calculated to be more popular. The darkness which at that time hung over every department of physical science, afforded little prospect, even to the philosophical inquirer, of his being able successfully to investigate the causes of phe nomena, so irregular in their recurrence, and so various in their appearance ; but every man would feel more or less interested, in making himself acquainted with rules or maxims, however empirical, which might en able him in any degree to predict the approach of such phenomena. \Ve find, accordingly, that the writings of Theophrastus soon became the standard work on meteorology, to which succeeding writers on the sub ject made neither very numerous, nor very important additions. It constituted the groundwork of the Aro c4i.4-Era, or Prognosticks of Aratus, afterwards translated, together midi the phenomena of the same author, into Latin verse by Cicero. A fragment of this juvenile essay of the Roman orator, is still to he found among his works, and affords us no very favourable specimen, either of the poetical talents of Cicero, or of the mete orological knowledge of the ancients.
It is unnecessary to waste the time of our readers, in attempting to trace the progress of this branch of phi losophy, during the later period of the Roman history. In the writings of Virgil, and many other classical authors, we find frequent allusions to the subject ; but while popular prognostications were no doubt multi plying, meteorology, as a science, made little or no ad vancement. A great many facts, indeed, are to be found in Pliny, and Lucretius has attempted to assign these to their respective causes ; but besides that the facts themselves are of a vague and general nature, the absurdities and superstitions with which they arc blend ed, render them a titter subject for the study of the moralist, than the investigation of the natural philoso pher.
During the ages that succeeded the final overthrow of the Roman empire, it is not to be supposed that the science of meteorology made any sensible progress. These were, proverbially, the ages of darkness, when not only were the lights of ancient literature and science ex tinguished, but the march of the human intellect seemed to be for a time retrograde. To the irruption of the barbarous nations from the north has been ascribed the ruin of all that was most valuable in the monuments of antiquity, while the period of their reign is almost uni versally regarded as a blot in the history of the hu man race, on which the historian dwells only in the language of lamentation or contempt. This is no doubt, to a certain extent, true ; and the condition of Europe, for several centuries of the period in question, did certainly present a striking contrast to the brighter era of the Roman government, when conquest was uni formly accompanied with all the refinements of litera ture and philosophy. NVith the exception, however, of the first two or three centuries, while Europe was still in an unsettled state, we arc not sure that what are commonly called the dark ages have been always fairly represented, or that they are in reality worthy of the unmrasured reprobation with which they are generally treated Were we more intimately acquainted with them, we should perhaps find that not a little of the darkness in which they are supposed to have been in volved, has arisen from our ignorance of their true cha racter, and that the origin of many of those sciences which constitute the glory of modern times, may be traced to the very men whom we have been taught to regard as little better than barbarians. But however this may be, we cannot agree with those who represent meteorological science as having suffered largely in the common ruin which the destruction of the Roman em pire brought on the philosophy of the ancients. Mete orology, as a science, had, in fact, little to lose, and as to the popular prognostications of atmospherical phe nomena, which constituted by far the largest and most interesting portion of the subject, even among the Ro mans, they were just as likely to have been discovered and preserved by the barbarian conquerors as by their more civilized predecessors. Few, if any of these prog nostics were the result of philosophical investigation, or profound research. They were of that nature, that phi losophy could give no rational explanation of them, but as matters of fact they were equally level to the cape city of the illiterate and the learned ; and in proof of this, we need only observe, that many of the maxims which are to be met with in classical authors respecting the changes of the weather, are still found in this as well as other countries, and that too among a class of men, who cannot be supposed to have derived their in formation from the writings of Greece and Rome. A general view of these commonly received opinions will comprehend all that was valuable in the science, if it may be called so, previous to the general use of meteo rological instruments, or, in other words, up to about the middle of the last century.