taken a cursory glance at the prominent physical phenomena
of the world, and attempted to link them together in the bonds of one
all-pervading principle. We have fearlessly taken a new path, and claim
originality for the whole, disclaiming all intention of retailing
second-hand wares, or of compiling an ingenious theory from
heterogeneous scraps. If it be true, or if it be partially true, let
those professionally engaged in such pursuits enter the wide field of
investigation we have discovered for them; for if the whole theory be
true, it only shows in a clearer light that the great work which has
been fancied so near completion is scarcely yet begun; while the
prospect of an ultimate and final completion of the temple which so many
zealous votaries are erecting, is rendered mournfully hopeless by the
contemplation of what yet remains to be performed.

FOOTNOTES:

[42] The orbit this year was determined under very unfavorable
circumstances.

[43] According to other tables, this angle would be much greater than is
given in Mr. Hind's catalogue.

[44] Prin. Prop. xx Lib. Sec.

[45] With reference to the resisting power of the atoms.

[46] Prin. Lib. Tor. Prop, xxxix., also Prop, xli.

[47] In making this suggestion, the author is well aware that
Ephemerides of the four chief asteroids have been given annually in the
Greenwich Nautical Almanac; but for the object proposed they are utterly
useless. Will any astronomer contend that these Ephemerides are true to
ten seconds of arc? If not, they are useless for the purpose suggested
above, and the theory wants revision. And it is evident that any
objection against its practicability, founded on the uncertainty of the
number of the asteroids themselves, as has already been urged in answer
to this suggestion, is an evidence that the objector weighed the subject
in the scales of his imagination only.

SECTION SIXTH.

THE POLAR ICE.

We shall conclude these pages by again referring to our theory of the
weather, in connection with an event which every friend of humanity and
every lover of natural science is bound deeply to deplore.

From the present position of the lunar nodes and apogee, the vortices of
our earth do not ascend into very high latitudes. Now, according to the
principles laid down, the frequency of storms tends to lower the
temperature in the warm regions of the earth, and to elevate it in the
polar regions. Let us suppose the northern limit of