224 OF ELECTRICITY. CHAP. 7. T>. 



above. And the electric Stars or balls of fire 

 called Fires of St. Elmo, which alight on the 

 masts and rigging of ships at sea before Storms, 

 seem certainly referable rather to electric sparks 

 of some sort than to burning gases. 



There are several dissimilar appearances, 

 which may be mentioned in this place, as 

 subjects worthy of the future investigation of 

 natural philosophers, which seem referable to 

 Electricity : and which appear to hold a mid- 

 dle nature between the Fiery Meteors above 

 described, and known electrical phaenomena. 

 There are, occasionally, stationary Meteors, 

 simple Accensions, which appear in cloudy Skies, 

 and last scarcely a moment. There are also 

 luminous portions of clouds occasionally, of 

 less intensity of light, which are faint and 

 glimmering, like luminous nebulae ; and others, 

 which have a rapid motion, that may be said to 

 have the same relation to moving Meteors 

 above, which the pale light about plants, before 

 noticed, bears to the well known phaenomenon 

 which occurs below called the Ignis Fatuus, 

 Jack with a Lantern, or Will with a Wisp, 

 the power of which to lead astray the benighted 

 traveller into boggy quagmires, by presenting 

 the appearance of a moving lantern, is well 



