21 fi OF ELECTRICITY. CHAP. 7- 3. 



are very curious ; they would seem to show, if 

 they were proved to be electrical, which they 

 probably are, that similar causes to those which 

 produce Thunder and Lightning may also cause 

 the electrical fire to be embodied in the form of 

 Meteors. A curious experiment to show the 

 embodied form of the electric fluid was made by 

 MM. Arden and Constable. Refer to Bertholon 

 Elect. Met. vol. ii. p. 27. 



SECTION III. 



Of Silent Lightning. 



THE silent Lightning of warm summer 

 evenings seems sometimes to come from visible 

 clouds ; but, at others, flashes of great latitude 

 appear almost all around the horizon, when no 

 cloud can be seen. These may either be the effect 

 of clouds too distant to be observed, or they 

 may be communications between the damp 

 Earth and the hazy Air above. The most 

 remarkable thing is their always being seen in 

 the horizon. When there be definite clouds 

 about, then are the flashes the brightest ; a cir- 

 cumstance which looks as if the flashes which 



