II. PHILOSOPHY.

Q. What is philosophy?

A. The study of nature and morality as founded upon reason.

Q. What is the etymology of the word philosophy?

A. It is compounded of the two Greek words, signifying love of wisdom or knowledge.

Q Into how many parts is it divided?

A. Four: First, Logic, Second, Morality, Third, Physics, Fourth, Metaphysics..

1. LOGIC.

Q. What is logic?

A. The art of using reason well in our enquiries after truth, and the communications of it to others.

Q. In what does this art consist?

A. In the reflections made by men upon the four principal faculties of their mind, perception, judgment, reasoning, disposition.

11. MORALITY.

Q. In what are we instructed by morality ? A. It gives us rules for the behavior, manners, and conduct of man, whether it be in public or private life, and is properly called Ethics, from the Greek, and morality from the Latin word mos, plural mores,both signifying manners or behavior. IH. PHYSICS.

From what is the word physics derived ? A. From the Greek word signifying nature or natural.

Q. Of what does it treat?

A. Of all natural things, it teaches us to explain all the phenomena of the heavens and earth. And,

1. OF

1. OF METEORS.

Q. What is a meteor?

A. A meteor is whatever is engendered in the air which surrounds us, and generally puts on the appearance of fire or flame, so as to become visible to us.

Q. What is the air?

A. A transparent, invisible and impalpable liquid matter, encompassing on all parts the terrestrial globe. The air, by experiments, has been found to be 914 times lighter than water. This air is composed of a high, middle, and lower region.

The air of the higher region is more subtile and more cold than that of the middle; and: that of the middle ftill finer than the lower. Q. What is the composition of meteors? A. Vapors and exhalations.

Vapors are particles of water that mingle with the air.

Exhalations are particles of all the different terrestrial bodies that rise into the air, sulphurs, salts, bitumens, and other bodies, of different natures,more or less combustible, solid or heavy..

LESSON III.

II. THE WIND.

Q: WHAT is the wind?

A. A sensible agitation of the air, by which large quantity flows in a current out of one region into another.

Q. What are the causes of this agitation? A. Local alterations in the state of the air, by means of For when the air is heated over

11. PHILOSOPHY.

1

one part of the earth more than over another, the warmer air, being rarefied becomes specifically lighter than the rest; it is therefore overpoised by it, and raised upward, the higher parts of it diffusing themselves every way over the top of the atmosphere; while the neighboring air below rushes in on all sides, till the equilibrium is restored. Hence also we may account for the ascending of smoke in a chimney; and for the rushing of the air through the keyhole of a door, or any small chink, into a room where there is a fire.

Q. How are the winds divided?

A. Into four principal ones, the north, south, east, and west, which take their names from the four cardinal points of the world.

Q. What is the nature of each?

A. The North wind is cold; because it comes from the frigid zone, or countries remote from the influence of the sun: the East is damp; because it comes from the bosom of the Atlantic where it imbibes large quantities of vapor: the West, coming from temperate regions across the American continent, is pleasant, pure, salubrious, and exhilarating.

Q. Are the winds deemed beneficial?

A. Beside their use in moving various machines, and their utility in navigation, they serve to purify and refresh the air, to convey the heat or cold of one region to another, and to produce a circulation of vapors from the ocean to inland countries. But, though their effects in the whole may be of great benefit, their violence is sometimes very detrimental. For,

When a violent and very sudden alteratia

happen:

happens in any particular part of the atmosphere, by means of a cloud, or some electrical cause, which occasions a rushing in of the air from all points, an impetuous wind is produced, turning rapidly every way, and threatening ruin. This is called a whirlwind. And,

When these causes are numerous and very violent, accompanied with lightning and thunder, the wind becomes so furious and terrible, that it overthrows houses, roots up trees, and destroys every thing in its course. This is denominated a hurricane.

The velocity of wind, in what is termed a gentle breeze, may be from four to six or eight miles an hour; a strong breeze or brisk wind will travel perhaps from ten to fifteen miles an hour; and a hurricane or tempest, probably not less than fifty or sixty miles.

.

The air is often observed, in different regions, to move in contrary currents; and this almost always previous to thunder.

III. CLOUDS AND MISTS.

How are mists formed?

A. Mists are those collections of vapors which chiefly arise from fenny, moist places, which become more visible as the light of the day decreaseth.

Q. What are clouds ?

A. Clouds are nothing else but a dark collection of misty vapors, suspended aloft in the air, and soaring on the wings of the wind.

Q. Pray how high do you suppose the clouds O fly?

A. From about a quarter of a mile to a mile. is common for persons, by climbing very high mountains,

mountains, to get above the clouds, and see them swim beneath them, cleaving against the mountains they are on..

2. Whence the various figures and colors of the clouds ?

A. The wonderful variety in the colors of the clouds, is owing to their particular situation to the sun, and the different reflections of his light; the various figures of the clouds, result from their loose and voluble texture, revolving into any form, according to the different force of the winds.

IV. RAIN.

Q. What is rain?

A. Nothing but thick clouds condensed by the cold, which by their own weight, fall upon the earth in small quantities, called drops of water.

Those small clouds, sometimes seen very high, heaped one upon the other, presage rain very

soon.

When the horizon at the rising or setting of the sun appears pale and yellowish, it is a sign of the air being full of vapors, and promises wer weather.

But when it is of a light red, at those times there are but few vapors in the air, and fair weather may be expected.

If the cloud that melts is greatly rarefied, and its particles in falling, meet an air moderately warm, these drops will be so small, they will not compose rain, but rime only.

THE DEW.

Q. From what is the dew produced ?

A. From a quantity of particles of water extremely subtile, that float about in a calm and

serene