beneath, is upheld? And in which, together with the true nature of the difference subsisting between the opposite forces of electricity and magnetism, we may perceive the wise intention of Nature in uniting in the atmosphere, forces such as these, which by reason of the contrasts they present, are so admirably adapted to serve as foils to each other, in calling forth and eliciting by this their conjunction, as already noticed, the respective latent energies of each.

3

CHAP. XIV.

Further Circumstances connected with the opposite Species of Meteoric Action in the Atmosphere.

AGAIN, it being of the nature of meteoric action in the atmosphere, that, of whatever kind, it converges to a principal or main focus, where it is most powerful; and that the opposite species into which it is divisable, are as opposite to each other in their nature, as are the electrical and magnetic forces from which they are derived: and further, that, as being at once the bases of the temperature and remainder of its phenomena,-it is the variations in the species of meteoric action in the atmosphere derived from the principle of reflection, which determine those of the opposite species. Thus it is that the opposite action of the sun as reflected from beneath,

separate and diverge horizontally on the earth's sur face from a common centre, to directly opposite points of its superficies;-its electric action concent trating at the line, and its magnetic, diverging thence to the opposite poles, but more particularly centring at the pole of the winter hemisphere. This division in the action of these forces being more strongly apparent at, and after the solstices as we approach the opposite extremes of annual temperature, than at the equinoxes or other parts of the year; and more fully developed at and in the vicinity of their opposite main foci at the line, and pole of the winter hemisphere, than throughout the intermediate regions by which they are separated.

It would follow, assuming our principles to be correct, that as the reflective action of the sun is most powerful at the solstices and in the vicinity of its opposite main foci; that these are the periods and regions of the atmosphere, either at, or where, the species of meteoric aetion in which clouds and rain have their source, is least frequent. And, on the contrary, that at the equinoxes, generally, as at and after the periods of the solstices in those regions which are the most distant from the sites occupied by the opposite main foci of reflective action, were those at, or where the latter, or species of meteoric action in which clouds and rain have their source, should the most frequently occur, other circumstances being the same. And by contrasting our

principles with these the facts to which they refer, we shall find them in all respects borne out by the latter:-and thence that, according to the dispositions of nature, each species of meteoric action in the atmosphere as connected with the temperature or opposite class of its phenomena, has both a season, and a locality, equally as a ground or axis proper to itself. But as the current of meteoric action in the atmosphere progresses uninterruptedly, and that these its opposite species cannot progress at the same time in any of its regions; and consequently, that the period of the termination of either in any region, may be considered as that of the commencement of the opposite. This necessarily leads us to inquire as to the nature of the principle in which these changes have their source; and this, in all cases, we shall find consists in the loss of the equilibrium of the existing action. And thus, as where the existing action is the most powerful its equilibrium is the most difficult to be disturbed, and vice versá; it follows that there is always a strict analogy between the force of the existing species of meteoric action, and that of its equilibrium: for as the force of reflective action is greatest at and in the vicinity of its main foci in summer and winter; in those regions of the atmosphere during these seasons also it is, where the equilibrium of this action is likewise the most powerful: and vice versú, as

refers to the middle latitudes and opposite seasons

of the year.

It thence follows, that the sustaining principle of reflective action, is that of disparity between the opposite actions of the sun; as the greater is the latter, or inequality subsisting between these actions in any region of the atmosphere, the greater the force of the dominant action on the temperature, and of the equilibrium of this the species of meteoric action it induces. And where on the contrary, a close approximation of the relative forces of these the opposite actions of the sun, subsists in any re gion of the atmosphere, and that the amount of such disparity is inconsiderable; the force of the dominant action, as of the equilibrium of the meteoric action it induces, is likewise inconsiderable. And as a graduated scale of disparity in the relative forces of the opposite actions of the sun exists in the summer hemisphere from the tropic to the pole;— being greatest at the former and least at the latter; as in the winter hemisphere contrariwise, or from the pole to the tropic. Thus it is, that a moteur, or disturbing cause, which at one extremity of either hemisphere during summer or winter, would, owing to the weakness of the equilibrium of reflective ac tion, overthrow it, and occasion a commencement of the opposite species in which clouds and rain have their source, would produce no such effect at' the opposite, or in the vicinity of the main focus of

the existing dominant action of the sun. From this it follows, that as, or in proportion to the force of the equilibrium of reflective action in any region of the atmosphere, must be that of the moteur, or disturb ing cause, by which it is overthrown. And as from the difference in the reflective power of mountains in summer, and of capes and the vicinity of the sea in winter, as contrasted with the interior of plains or of continents; and the consequent difference of force in the equilibrium of reflective action during these seasons in the former, as contrasted with the latter; thence its more frequent overthrow, and the occurrence of rain, consequent thereon, in mountains during summer, and in the vicinity of the sea during winter, than in the opposite class of localities noticed, circumstances of latitude being the same.1995

And, in reference to the disturbing cause al luded to, by which the equilibrium of the reflective action of the sun is overthrown. As the dominant action of the sun which induces the equilibrium of its reflective action, cannot be disturbed by itself; it follows that, throughout the year, it is the weaker action of the sun, that must be the disturbing cause by which the equilibrium of the meteoric action of its opposite the dominant action, is overthrown. And thus, as from the period of the equinox to that of the succeeding solstice, both in the summer and winter hemisphere of the earth, the existing dominant action of the sun is in a state of continual in