STUDY X. éj 



electric needles. There is not a Teaman but what 

 has feen, a thoufand times, thofe peaks, and thofe 

 crefts, covered with a cloudy cap, gathered round 

 and round, and concealing them entirely frorn> 

 view, without once fufpecting the caufe of this ap- 

 pearance. Our Philoiophers, on the other hand, 

 deducing their conclurions merely from the in- 

 flection of charts, have taken thofe rocky protu- 

 berances for the wrecks of a primitive earth, with- 

 out giving themfdves any trouble about their 

 effects. 



They ought to have obferved, that thofe me- 

 tallic pyramids and crefls, as well as moft mines 

 of iron and copper, are always to be found in ele- 

 vated fituations, and at the fource of Jfrl rivers, of 

 which they are the primitive caufes, by means of 

 their attractions. Their general inattention to 

 this fubject is thus only to be accounted for; fea- 

 men obferve, and do not reafon ; and the learned 

 reafon, but do not obferve. Undoubtedly, had 

 the experience of the one been united to the fasa- 

 city of the other, prodigies of difcovery might 

 have been expected. 



I am perfuaded that, in imitation of Nature, it 

 might be poffible for us to acquire the art of 

 forming, by means of electric ftones, artificial 

 fountains, which fliould attract the rainy clouds in 



parched 



