studv II. 131 



Thefe, after all, are only the fmalleft part of the 

 blefllngs for which their rich defcendants fland 

 indebted to Nature. I fay nothing of that infinite 

 number of arts, which are employed at home, to 

 difFufe knowledge and delight ; nor of that ter- 

 rible invention of artillery, which fecures to them 

 the enjoyment of thefe, while the noife of it dif- 

 turbs their repofe at Paris, only to announce viflo- 

 ries ; nor of that new, and ftill more wonderful, 

 art of eledricity, which fcreens * their hotels from 



the 



* On the fubjeél of the efFeiHis of Eleftricity, a thought abun- 

 tlantly impious has been exprefled, in a Latin verfe, the import 

 of which is, that Man has difarmed the Deity. Thunder is by 

 no means a particular inftrument of divine Juftice. It is necef- 

 fary to the purification of the air, in the heats of Summer. God 

 has permitted to Man the occafional difpofal of it, as He has 

 given him the power of ufing Fire, of croffing the Ocean, and of 

 converting every thing in Nature to his advantage. It is the 

 ancient Mythology, which, reprefenting Jupiter always wielding 

 the thunder, has infpired us with fo much terror. We find, in 

 the Holy Scriptures, ideas of the Divinity much more confo- 

 latory, and a much founder Philofophy. I may, perhaps, be 

 miftaken, but I do not believe there is a fingle paflage in the 

 Bible, in which thunder is menrioned as an inftrument of divine 

 Juftice. Sodom was deftroyed by fliowers of fire and brimftone. 

 The ten plagues, with which Egypt was fmitten, were the cor- 

 ruption of the waters, fwarms of reptiles, lice, flies, the pefti- 

 lence, ulcers, hail, caterpillars, thick darknefs, and the death of 

 the firft-born. Corah, Dathan, and Abiram, were confumed by 

 fire ifluing out of the Earth. When the Ifraelites murmured in 

 the wildernefs of Paran; the fire of the ho-&.v> burnt among theniy 



K 2 and 



