PREFATORY REMARKS.

The chief object of this little Annual, which is now offered to the Public, is to elucidate and establish that part of Natural Philosophy which embraces the Influences of the Heavenly Bodies on this Globe and its atmosphere.

That the Stars have an effect upon this Terraqueous Globe is as self-evident a truth as that they have an existence; the ebbing and flowing of the tides prove this, as well as the periodical returns of heat and cold, light and darkness, gleams and showers. They are the result of variations of the atmosphere, and although these depend on the condition of the Earth, the latter depends on the state of the Heavenly Bodies by which it is surrounded and effected.

Brutes and insects are early sensible of these vicissitudes, and nervous, sickly, or elderly people are the same; doors and shutters will swell or shrink, metals will contract or expand, watches will lose or gain time, stones and other substances impregnated with saline particles will give out moisture, the mercury fluctuate in the tube, and the entire face of Nature become altered, and succumb to the effects of this occult sympathy and influence inherent in the Stars.

The more immediate of these causes is the planets; owing to their proximity, rapid motion, and frequent combinations with each other, as well as with the fixed stars, which enables them to produce and convey a variety of different Influences. Of these orbs, the greatest in power is the Moon, by reason of her proximity, and the Sun, by his immense magnitude and peculiar conformation.

THE AUTHOR.