Page:A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland - Johnson (1775).djvu/260

 gard only natural effects. They expect better crops of grain, by sowing their seed in the moon's increase. The moon has great influence in vulgar philosophy. In my memory it was a precept annually given in one of the Almanacks,

We should have had little claim to the praise of curiosity, if we had not endeavoured with particular attention to examine the question of the. Of an opinion received for centuries by a whole nation, and supposed to be confirmed through its whole descent, by a series of successive facts, it is desirable that the truth should be established, or the fallacy detected.

The is an impression made either by the mind upon the eye, or by the eye upon the mind, by which things distant or future are perceived, and seen as if they