Note 31 — AN ACCOUNT OF THE CLIMATE OF PENNSYLVANIA, AND ITS INFLUENCE UPON THE HUMAN BODY.
Reading edition
I cannot help agreeing with Mr. Kirwan, in one of his remarks upon the science of meteorology, in the preface to his estimate of the temperature of different latitudes. “This science (says he), if brought to perfection, would enable us at least to foresee those changes in the weather which we could not prevent. Great as is the distance between such knowledge and our own present attainments, we have no reason to think it above the level of the powers of the human mind. The motions of the planets must have appeared as perplexed and intricate to those who first contemplated them; yet, by persevering industry, they are now known to the utmost precision. The present is (as the great Leibnitz expresses it) in every case pregnant with the future, and the connection must be found by long and attentive observation.”
The influence which the perfection of this science must have upon health, agriculture, navigation, and commerce, is too obvious to be mentioned.