ediately, or
mediately by giving different degrees of warmth to different parts of
the earth), and it is believed on inferior evidence that the moon also
affects it. It may therefore seem not impossible or unplausible that
other celestial bodies may affect perhaps others of the powers of
nature about us. But there I must stop. The denial of the
impossibility is no assertion of the truth or probability, and I
absolutely decline to take either side--either that the influences are
real, or that the influences are unreal--till I see evidence of their
effects.

Such evidence it is extremely difficult to extract from ordinary facts
of observation. I have alluded to the sun's daily disturbance of the
magnet as one of the most certain of influences, yet if you were to
observe the magnet for a single day or perhaps for several days, you
might see no evidence of that influence, so completely is it involved
with other disturbances whose causes and laws are totally unknown.

I believe that, in addition to the effects ascribable to Newtonian
gravitation (as general motion of the earth, precession of the
equinoxes, and tides), this magnetic disturbance is the only one yet
established as depending on an external body. Men in general, however,
do not think so. It appears to be a law of the human mind, to love to
trace an effect to a cause, and to be ready to assent to any specious
cause. Thus all practical men of the lower classes, even those whose
pecuniary interests are concerned in it, believe firmly in the
influence of the moon upon the winds and the weather. I believe that
every careful examiner of recorded facts (among whom I place myself as
regards the winds) has come to the conclusion that the influence of
the moon is not discoverable.

I point out these two things (magnetic disturbances and weather) as
tending to shew that notoriety or the assumed consent of practical
men, are of no value. The unnotorious matter may be quite certain, the
notorious matter may have no foundation. Everything must stand on its
own evidence, as completely digested and examined.

Of such evidence the planetary influence has not a particle.

My intended short note has, in the course of writing, grown up into a
discourse of very unreasonable length; and it is possible that a large
portion of it has only increased obscurity. At any rate I can add
nothing, I believe, which can help to explain more fully my views on
this matter.

* *