CHAP. 10. 1. ANTIQUITIES, &c. 283 



expletion or not I am incapable to determine, 

 but I am unaware of any influence that a great 

 blaze of light can exercise on impending Storms. 

 However, a similar superstition to this, namely, 

 that the music of bells will disperse Storms is 

 founded on fact. In Weaver's Funeral Mo- 

 numents, among a number of inscriptions on 

 church bells, we find the following : 



" Sabbata pango, funera plango, fulgura frango., 

 Excito lentos, dissipo ventos, paco cruentos." 



And bells were formerly rung to dispel 

 Storms as well as to repel the Devil. The aerial 

 percussion being extended up to the clouds 

 above, is known to produce changes in their 

 structure. A discharge of artillery, in battle, 

 has been known to bring down drops of water 

 from an overhanging Raincloud ; a circumstance 

 which superstition has, before now, attributed 

 to the tears of Heaven, shed for the destructive 

 carnage going forward on Earth. That a great 

 union of flames, by rarifying the air, which 

 would naturally ascend, may, in some measure, 

 do the same thing, is within the bounds of 

 possibility. 



The modern husbandman is used to laugh 

 at the precision observed by the ancients in 

 sowing, planting, reaping, and other rustic 



