OLD BELIEFS ON NATURE OF LIGHTNING. 569 



happen. Hither the hyacinth prevents the thunder from 

 coming, or it directs the judgment of whoever carries it, or 

 it simply prevents him who has it from being injured, even 

 if struck. These are the only ways. To be struck by 

 thunder and not hurt is incredible and, besides, the 

 authors have not said this, but that the thunder does not 

 touch the possessor. To hinder the thunder coming is a 

 still greater miracle;" and finally the wise Cardan arrives 

 at the conclusion that the stone can act only by making 

 the heart strong and wise and joyful, so that the owner 

 thereof keeps out of peril. Such was lightning protection 

 and the philosophical notion of the nature of lightning in 



A few years, and it is Shakespeare's time. Note the 

 question which he gives to the crazed Lear 



" First let me talk with this philosopher, 

 What is the cause of thunder?" 1 



and answers through Brutus, and Ariel, and Volumnia - 



"Exhalations whizzing in the air." 2 



"The fire and cracks 

 Of sulphurous roaring." 3 



" To charge thy sulphur with a bolt 

 Which should'st but rive an oak." 4 



The lightning was then believed to be a burning sulphur- 

 ous vapor; sulphurous because it caused the air to smell 

 like sulphur a circumstance which Boyle noticed in the 

 rubbed amber, and made no more mental connection be- 

 tween it and the lightning odor than Kriiger did after him. 

 A little later and we shall find that the idea of guarding 

 against the lightning crosses Ben Jonson's erratic orbit 



" Sir shall I say to you for that hat . . it is proof 

 Against thunder and enchantment " 5 



1 King Lear, Act iii., Sc. 4. 2 Julius Caesar, Act i., Sc. 2. 



3 Tempest, Act i., Sc. 2. -Coriolanus, Act v., Sc. 3. 



5 Cynthia's Revels. 



