d knows
that not only the vulgar, but the learned, were for many Ages in a
constant Error about Corruption, and really believed that the Heat of
the Sun, and even animal Heat produced Worms, Maggots, and other living
Creatures. Many grave Writers carried the Thing farther, and told us of
Rats, Mice, and other Creatures produced out of the Slime of the River
_Nile_, by the Heat of the Sun in _Egypt_, which might very well pass
for Truth among those who fancied they saw every Day something of the
like Nature: I mean in the Corruption of Flesh and other Things, in
which we behold Thousands of living Creatures.

AN _Italian_ Philosopher destroyed this whole Doctrine at once, by a
simple and easy Experiment. He exposed a Piece of raw Flesh in a glass
Vessel well covered with Gauze to the Air and Sun, and found that it
putrefied without producing any living Creatures. This shews how
careful we ought to be with Respect to Facts; for till this Experiment
was made, no Body doubted that Vermin were bred by, as well as in
putrefied Bodies; whereas we are now satisfied that the Heat of the Sun
can no more produce a Worm or a Maggot, than a Horse or an Elephant. By
the same Examination we might open the Way to Knowledge, by driving out
a Multitude of other Errors. But the Humour of taking Things for
granted without inquiring into them, and then endeavouring to account
for them by dint of Reasoning, amuses us with a false shew of Wisdom,
and encourages us to persist obstinately in the Maintenance of weak and
foolish Notions.

TO apply this to the Subject of which we are treating. It is certainly
a curious and a useful Thing to understand the Nature of the Weather,
and to know how the Changes that happen in it come to pass. The
Business is to find out the true Way of coming at this kind of
Knowledge, and upon the Principles that I have advanced, it is very
evident that the, only certain Way of coming at it is by Observation.
This is a slow but a sure Method of arriving at Truth, and the Specimen
here given us, of _one_ Man's Observations, is enough to convince us
that a little Diligence and Application would soon go a great Way
towards forming a Body of such Observations as might enable us to
understand the Weather thoroughly, and to predict its Changes and
Alterations with a great Degree of Certainty. If we will not take this
Pains, we must content ourselves with what hath been already
discovered, or if our Conditions of Life exclu