156 NATURAL HISTORY 



As when the sun t new risen, 



< Looks through the horizontal misty air, 



" Shorn of his beams; or from behind the moon, 



" In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds 



11 On half the nations, and with fear of change 



n Perplexes monarchs. " 



LETTER LXVI. 



TO THE SAME. 



WE are very seldom annoyed with thun- 

 der-storms ; and it is no less remarkable 

 than true, that those which arise in the 

 south have hardly been known to reach 

 this village ; for before they get over us, 

 they take a direction to the east or to the 

 west, or sometimes divide into two, and 

 go in part to one of those quarters, and in 

 part to the other ; as was truly the case in 

 Summer 1783, when though the country 

 round was continually harassed with tem- 

 pests, and often from the south, yet we 

 escaped them all ; as appears by my journal 



