GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY : THE WESTON METEOR. 225 



subject of universal conversation. I have had occasion 

 many times to detail and illustrate President Clapp's the 

 ory, and it has generally been considered as better than 

 any other ; the lunar philosophers are humorously called 

 lunatics. I am told that at a public dinner here the meteor 

 was the subject of conversation, and a gentleman present 

 exclaimed, somewhat impiously perhaps, but very pithily, 

 " Well, I must believe it because of the testimony, and I 

 do believe it, but before God it is impossible ! " (Ten o'clock 

 at night). I have dined with Bronson since writing the 

 above and he has thrown new light on our subject, or, to 

 make my figure more consistent with fact, he proposes 

 to throw a little money into our purses. I am quite serious 

 in what I am now saying. Bronson says, that if we will im 

 mediately revise the whole subject, collect all well-authenti 

 cated instances of similar events, arrange and illustrate 

 them, relate our own case with the analysis, and the result of 

 the analytical examination of the rest, state all the theories 

 and refute them, bring forward the Yalensian theory with 

 the ample illustrations of which it is susceptible, and, in 

 short, make a book, which shall be worth a dollar, that there 

 can be no doubt that it will give us a handsome remunera 

 tion. He says he will bear and risk all the expenses of 

 publication, and will remunerate us in any way that we can 

 agree upon. He even went so far as to say, that he had no 

 doubt it would bring us a sum equal to a year's salary. 

 Besides, he urges that this is a favorable time to come 

 before the public and to write ourselves into reputation and 

 into bread ; that we ought not to lose the benefit of the 

 labor which we have already expended, and that if the 

 work is throughout as well executed as what we have al 

 ready published, he will insure its success. Much more 

 passed, and Elihu Chauncey, who was present, is of the 

 same opinion. Both these men know the whole book-sell 

 ing concern from beginning to end, and are therefore qual 

 ified to judge. T confess myself an entire convert to their 



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