METEMPSYCHOSIS

(Or. ncra, change, and \fm%v, soul.) A Greek word deno'Mg the migrations of the soul throut,.! different succe )' t bodies. The doctrine of the transmigration of souls Las rusted in the belief of various religious arJ philosophical -eels from the remotest antiquity. It form d ib«. leading dc-tlrine of one of the most celebrated Is of pHloeophy in the whole heathen world (see PvTiiAuojir*n Vh'lusomiy); it was said, too, to have found numcrot j -d'. '.^ IS. See Pro em ptosis. METEOBOLOGY.mtm.1 The science (Gr.of meteors,utrrtwpoc,or atrial,the science and whichAoyof, explains the various phenomena which have their origin in the atmoaphi the term meteorology, it is now usual to include, not merely the observation of the accidental phenomena to which the name of meteor is applied, but every terrestrial as well as atmospherical phenomenon, whether accidental or permanent, depending on the action of heat, light, electricity, anil magnetism. In this extended signification, meteorology eomprehendscllniatology.and the greater part of physical geography; and its object is to determine the diversified and ince antly changing Influences of the four great a sients of nature now named, on land, in the sea, and in the atmosphere. See Atmosphere. Climate, and the various terms referred to under Meteors. [s. 755]