treatise introduces the subject of meteoric astronomy by tracing historical beliefs about comets and meteors, transitioning to modern discoveries that categorize shooting stars and meteor falls as cosmical bodies orbiting the sun. Kirkwood references significant meteor showers and their periodic occurrences, emphasizing the importance of systematic observation. The preface outlines the structure of the work, indicating that the initial chapters will address specific meteor showers, while subsequent sections will explore the theory underlying meteoric events, enriching the reader's understanding of the physical cosmos and its dynamic phenomena. (This is an automatically generated summary.)