208 METEOBIC STONES. 



parts of the earth. We may either collect, as accurately as 

 possible, the external evidence, the testimonies of those 

 persons in whose neighbourhood the bodies are situated ; or 

 we may examine the nature of the substances themselves, and 

 compare them with the kinds of matter by which they are 

 surrounded. The first mode of investigation is evidently 

 more liable to error, and less likely to proceed upon full and 

 satisfactory data than the other. But if both inquiries lead to 

 conclusions somewhat analogous; if both the inductions of 

 fact present us with anomalous phenomena of nearly the same 

 description, and equally irreducible to any of the classes into 

 which all other facts have been arranged, we may rest assured 

 that a discovery has been made and the two methods of de- 

 monstration will be reciprocally confirmed. 



I. The first narrative which has been offered to the world, 

 under circumstances of tolerable accuracy, is that of the 

 celebrated Gassendi. He was himself the eyewitness of what 

 he relates. On the 27th of November, in the year 1627, the 

 sky being quite clear, he saw a burning stone fall on mount 

 Vaisir, between the towns of Guillaumes and Perne in 

 Provence. It appeared to be about four feet in diameter, was 

 surrounded by a luminous circle of colours like a rainbow, 

 and its fall was accompanied with a noise like the discharge 

 of cannon. But Gassendi inspected the supposed fallen stone 

 still more nearly; he found that it weighed 59 lib., was 

 extremely hard, of a dull metallic colour, and of a specific 

 gravity considerably greater than that of common marble. 

 Having only this solitary instance to examine, he concluded, 

 not unnaturally, that the mass came from some neighbouring 

 mountain, which had been in a transient state of volcanic 

 eruption. 



The celebrated stone of Ensisheim is not proved to have 

 fallen by testimony quite so satisfactory ; but there are 

 several circumstances narrated with respect to it, which the 

 foregoing account of Gassendi wants. Contemporary writers 

 all agree in stating the general belief of the neigh bourhood, 

 that on the 7th of November 1492, between eleven and 



