that I ought to be pardoned for saying, in relation to the utter
absurdity of attributing all meteorological phenomena to the agency of
heat; but when I find such views as those which that article contains,
emanating from so distinguished a man, sanctioned by the President of the
British Association, and copied into the leading journal of science in
this country, I can not forbear a further and a somewhat critical
examination of them. There is more error of supposition and less truth in
it, than in any other article regarding the science, of equal length,
which has fallen under my notice.

What is the height of this expansion? The moisture of evaporation ascends,
ordinarily, but a few thousand feet. The atmosphere grows regularly
cooler, from the earth to the trade, and _the increased warmth that is
felt at the surface extends but little way_. Currents of warm air do not
ascend. The strata maintain, substantially, their relative positions; and
this is a most beneficent provision. In northern latitudes of the
temperate zone, all the warmth derived from a few hours' sunshine is
needed at the surface; and, deplorable, indeed, would be our condition, if
the atmosphere, as fast as warmed by the rays of the sun, were to hasten
up, and the frigid strata descend in its place. The earth would not be
habitable. All the warm air on its surface would be rising as soon as it
became warmed, and the cold air above be descending, and enveloping us
with the chilling strata which are ever floating within two or three miles
above us. No. Infinite wisdom has ordered it otherwise. The laws of
magnetism and of static-electric induction and attraction keep the strata
in their places, and preserve to us the warmth which the solar rays afford
or produce. The inhabitant of the valley, in a high northern latitude, in
summer, can plant, and sow, and reap, at the base of the mountain whose
summit penetrates the stratum of continual congelation, and up its sides,
almost to the line of perpetual snow; and, as he looks upon the fruits of
his labor, and up to the snow-clad peak that towers above him, can thank
his Maker for placing a warm equatorial current, a perpetual barrier,
between the fertility and warmth which surround him, and the cold
destructive strata above; and thank Him for not creating such a state of
things, as certain meteorologists insist we shall believe He has created.
Again, where are the _upper regions_, from which the lateral overfl