^8 Supposed Means of preserving Towns, 



made no difference ; the trees remained uninjured, and the house 

 was struck with lightning.* 



Of the means hy which it has been alleged that whole towns^ and 

 even great ranges of country, may he preserved from the in- 

 jurious effects of lightning. 



Ctesias of Cnidus, one of the companions of Xenophon, men- 

 tions, in a passage preserved by Photius, that he had received 

 two swords^ the one from the hands of Parisatis, the mother of 

 Artaxerxes, and the other from the hands of the king himself. 

 He then adds, " If these are planted in the earth, with their 

 points upwards, they disperse clouds, hail, and storms. The 

 king,'''' he continues, " proved this before me to his risk and 

 periV Has this undoubtedly very curious passage all the im- 

 portance which has sometimes been conceded to it ? It is now 

 irrefragably established, I will not say that a short sword, but 

 that a metallic blade, lance-shaped and pointed, placed upon 

 the pinnacle of a building, does not disperse clouds. In this 

 particular, therefore, there is no doubt that the Persians de- 

 ceived themselves ; to this extent, their opinion is evidently de- 

 void of proof. This point once conceded, may we not then 

 suppose that the physician of Artaxerxes only re-echoed a bold 

 conjecture, which was baseless, when he endowed his sword with 

 a second property, viz. that of dispersing thunder-storms ? At 

 all events, and this would not be the first time that truth has suf- 

 fered by an unfortunate association, are we to be astonished 

 that the experiment of those two sword-blades was passed 

 unnoticed, when we find in the very same chapter where it is re- 

 corded, Ctesias mentions, with the same unhesitating confidence, 

 the existence of a fountain, sixteen cubits in circumference, and 

 one orgy'ie deep, which filled every year with liquid gold, add- 

 ing that they annually draw off a hundred pitchers of this gold ; 

 at the same time remarking that these vessels should be made 



• We may satisfactorily explain this anomaly theoretically, by men- 

 tioning that the high ground covered with trees is an arid and dry 

 rock covered with a few inches only of earth ; whilst the house was almost 

 surrounded with water, and was provided with two lightning conductors, 

 with all their accessory apparatus, and that many metallic pipes were 

 placed about the building, reaching from the roofs to the foundation. 



