198 Supposed Connection of Meteoric Phenomena^ 



often introduced, in intimate connection with convulsions of 

 the elements, as the agents of divine wrath.* In this respect, 

 the pagan as well as the Jewish historians agree ; for Pliny, 

 speaking of the locust, says, " T>eorum ircE pestis ea intel- 

 ligiturr {Nat, Hist.^x. 29.) 



The conclusion to be drawn from the foregoing notes is 

 self-evident, if we consider that the years individually men- 

 tioned were marked by striking evidences of a disturbed state 

 of the earth and atmosphere. Without farther reference, it 

 may suffice to say that every one of those years was dis- 

 tinguished by earthquakes, meteors, or other phenomena: 

 and, to pass over 1333 — 1348, the epoch of the black death, 

 and 1817, that of the cholera, we may take 1783 as an ex- 

 ample ; a year marked by most surprising convulsions, f 

 Indeed, it will be found that, at all periods of telluric dis- 

 turbance, some extraordinary movement takes place in the 

 kingdoms of animated nature ; and, whenever there is an in- 

 dication of the kind, it will be discovered that the excitement 

 occurred at a time when the atmosphere has been unaccount- 

 ably heated, the seasons affected by some extraneous mo- 

 difying cause of change, and the volcanic force especially 

 developed. On this subject, I have not the slightest doubt; 

 for it is capable of positive demonstration, if we may believe 

 the testimony of undisputed facts, as they are registered in 

 the calendars of naturalists. Take the links where we will, in 

 the chain of terrestrial phenomena, we find them preserving 

 the character, the consistency, and the order of a series, 

 which, examined in detail, or viewed in the mass, leads to 

 the conclusion, that each member has the same governing 

 law, and that, if followed up, each will be found to centre in 

 volcanic agency. This position will, in future observations, 

 be satisfactorily tested and proved: the arguments derived 

 from that branch of the enquiry affecting animal life being 

 the first general evidence to its truth. It is anticipating to 

 say more now, than that, if the other cases bear out the as- 

 sertion, the irruption of the mice in Scotland and Ireland, 

 the incursion of the bears and cankerworms in Canada, and 

 the movement amongst the boars of France, &c., all point 

 out 1833 as a peculiar year; and to what are we to attribute 

 these so recent occurrences, but to some result of that great 

 cause which has shaken the earth, the sea, and the air, and 

 rendered the last few months more memorable for earth - 



* See, amongst other passages, 1 Kings, viii. 37. j Joel, i. 4. ; Psalm 

 Ixxviii. 43 — 48 ; Exodus, vii. — x., &c. 



f See, amongst other writers, Gilbert White, part 2. near the end. 



