FALLEN ON THE EARTH, <2\1 



from Jupiter, or from the clouds, have evidently confounded 



fuch fubflances with what have been termed Ceraimia, Why thefe fa£U 



Bxtilia, Ombria, Brontia, &c. names altogether unappro- have : b " n dl *" 



priate to fubflances fallen on our globe. Indeed fome miflead, 



and others are inexpreilive. 



The term Ceraunia, by a mifnomer, deduced from its fup- 

 pofed origin, teems, as well as Bcetilia *, to have been an- 

 ciently ufed to denote many fpecies of Hones, which were 

 polifhed and fhaped into various forms, though moftly wedge- 

 like or triangular, fometimes as inflruments, fometimes as 

 oracles, and fometimes as deities. The import of the names, 

 Ombria, Brontia, &c. feems fubject to the fame uncertainty. 



In very early ages, it was believed, that Hones did in 

 reality, fall, as it was faid, from heaven, or from the gods ; 

 thefe, either from ignorance, or perhaps from fuperflitious 

 views, were confounded with other flones, which, by their 

 compact aggregation, were better calculated to be fhaped 

 into different inftruments, and to which it was convenient to 

 attach a fpecies of myfterious veneration. In modern days, Thunderbolt. 

 becaufe expiofion and report have generally accompanied 

 the defcent of fuch fubflances, the name of thunderbolt, or 

 thunderflone, has ignorantly attached itfelf to them ; and, 

 becaufe a variety of fubflances accidentally prefent, near 

 buildings and trees flruck with lightening, have, with the 

 fame ignorance, been collected as thunderbolts, the thunder- 

 bolt and the fallen metalline fubftance have been ranked in 

 the fame clafs of abfurdity. Certainly, fince the phenomena 

 of lightening and electricity have been fo well identified, 

 the idea of a thunderbolt is ridiculous. But the exiflence of 

 peculiar fubflances fallen on the earth, I cannot hefitate to 

 affert : and on the concordance of remote and authenticated 

 facts, I fhall refl the affertion. 



Mr. King, the learned author of Remarks concerning Stones Ancient author?. 



faid to have fallen from the Clouds, in thefe Dam and in ancient V e ,f ot fto " es 

 „,. , 11. • r i n fallen on the 



Times, has adduced quotations of the greateft antiquity, de- earth. King 



fcriptive of the defcent of fallen flones ; and, could it be Faico « et > &c. 

 thought neceffary to add antique teflimonies to thofe infianced 

 by fo profound an antiquarian, the quotations of Mons. Fal- 

 conet, in his papers upon Boetilia, inferted in the Hifloire 

 des Infcriptions et Belles- Lettres ;\ the quotations in Zahn's 



* Mercati, Metallotheca Vaticana. page 241.. 

 f Tom. VI. P. 519. etTom. XXHI. P. 228. 



fpecufo 



