NOTES. 423 



nigmous flones. It might, therefore, be fufceptible of contrac- 

 tion and dilatation, and thus poffefs within itfelf a principle of 

 motion, efpecially at the rifing of ^«rcrrt, when the contraft of 

 the cold night, and of the firfl rays of the rifing Sun, has moft 

 aélion. 



This effed muft have been infallible, under a Iky like that of 

 Upper Egypt, where it fcarcely ever rains. The founds tniitted 

 from the ftatue of Me?nnon^ at the moment when the Sun ap- 

 peared over the Horizon of Thebes, had, thereforç, nothing 

 more marvellous in it, than the explofion of the cannon of the 

 Palais Royal, and that of the mortar of the King's-Garden, as the 

 Sun pafles over the meridian of Paris. With a burning glafs, a 

 bit of match, and fome gun-powder, it would be eafily poffible 

 to make a ttatue of Jupiter thunder, in the midft of a defert, 

 on fuch a day of the year, and even at fuch an hour of the day and 

 of the night, as might be refolved on. This would appear fo 

 much the more marvellous, that it would thunder only in clear 

 weather, like the highly ominous thunder-claps among the 

 Ancients. 



What prodigies are operated at this day on perfons labouring 

 under the prejudices of fuperlHtion, by means of ele<^ricity, 

 which, through the medium of a rod of iron, or copper, ftrikes 

 in an invifible manner, is capable of killing a man at a fingle 

 blow, calls down tlie thunder from the bofom of the cloud, and 

 direfts it at pleafure as it falls ? What effefts might not be pro- 

 duced by means gf aëroftation, that art ftill in it's infancy, 

 which, through the medium of a globe of taffeta, glazed over 

 with an elaftic gum, and filled with a putrid air, eight or ten 

 times lighter than that which we breathe, raifes feveral men at 

 once above the clouds, where the winds tranfport them to in- 

 credible diftances, at the rate of nine or ten leagues an hour, 

 without the lead iatigue ? Our acroftats, it is true, are of no 

 manner of ufe to us, becaufe they are carried along at the mercy 

 Qf the winds, as they have not yet difcovered the means of con- 

 ducing their machinery ; but I am perfuaded they will one day 

 attain this point of perfe(5lion. There is, on the fubjeâ: of this 

 E e 4 invention, 



