Lesion xxvin.] FIRE. )&7 



experiments it appears, that the expansion of all 

 elastic fluids, including steam of water, vapour 

 of ether, Jcc. is equal and uniform, and nearly 

 equable. 



Fire, in a sensible or collective state, is well 

 known to be one of the grandest agents of nature ; 

 and for this very reason, perhaps, was regarded 

 amongst most nations, in an early period of the 

 world, cither as the creator and productive cause 

 of all things, or, at least, as the substance from 

 which the Creator produced all things. Hence the 

 Persians, Ethiopians, Scythians, andCarthaginians, 

 in the Old World, and the Mexicans and Peruvians 

 in the New, paid divine honours to fire itself, or 

 to the sun, which was esteemed the sublimest re- 

 presentation of this element. Zoroaster ordained 

 the erection of pyrea, or temples dedicated to fire, 

 throughout all Persia. And even the Hebrews 

 imagined fire to be the grandest proof of the pre- 

 sence of the Deity. Under this symbol, He ap- 

 peared to Moses on Mount Horeb ; and to the 

 Hebrews at large on Mount Sinai, on the promul- 

 gation of the sacred law ; and under this symbol 

 He evinced his protective presence every night, by 

 assuming the form of a fiery pillar. And, im- 

 pressed with this idea, the Jews were ever anxious 

 to preserve it in a pure and active flame, upon the 

 national altar. When, therefore, the Jews were 

 borne away in captivity to Persia, the priests took 

 the sacred fire of the altar and concealed it in a 

 dry cave, with which none but themselves were 

 acquainted, and where, on their restoration to li- 

 berty, 



