274 THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 



great unlverfal creation contains powers, &c. that 

 we cannot fo much as guefs at. May there not 

 exifl beings, and vaft powers, infinitely Imaller than 

 the particles of air, to whom air is as hard a body 

 as a diamond is to us ? Why not ? There is neither 

 great nor ftnall, but by comparifon. Our knockers 

 are fome of thefe powers, the guardians of mines. 



" You remember xh* ftory in Selden's Table- 

 Talk, of fir Robert Cotton and others difputing 

 about Mofes's flioe. Lady Cotton came in, and 

 alked, " Gentlemen, are you fure it is a fhoe ?" So 

 the firfl: thing is to convince mankind that there is 

 a fet of creatures, a degree or fo finer than we are, 

 to whom we have given the name of knockers, from 

 the founds we hear in our mines. This is to be 

 done by a collection of their anions well attefted ; 

 and that is what I have begun to do, and then let 

 every one judge for himfelf." 



Thefe letters are curious, though the i*eafoning is 

 far from conclufive. When I was in the country, 

 i was very defirous of feeing a copy of the remarks 

 on thefe fuppofed aerial fprites, that Mr. Morris re- 

 fers to in the fecond letter, but was not able to meet 

 with fuch.^ — In endeavouring to account for the noifes, 

 for we mufl believe that fuch noifes have taken 

 place, it has been remarked that they might perhaps 

 have proceeded from the echo of the miners at 

 work, or from the dropping of water in fome hollow 

 places in or near the mine. Thefe conjectures are, 

 however, 'very infufficient, if we are to credit Mr. 



Morris's 



