METEORS, AEROLITES, SHOOTING-STARS.* 



[QUARTEKLY REVIEW, No. 183.] 



IN every age of the world, and in every region of it, there 

 have been witnessed, amidst the more constant aspects 

 and phenomena of the heavens, those strangely irregular and 

 vagrant lights, those 'fiery shapes and burning cressets,' 

 which suddenly kindle into brightness above us, and as sud- 

 denly are lost again in darkness. Sometimes seen as globes 

 of light in rapid movement much more frequently under 

 the aspect and name of falling or shooting stars, and these 

 occasionally even crowding certain parts of the sky by their 

 number such appearances in former times were regarded 

 either with dull amazement, or with superstitious awe as the 

 omens of approaching events. Throughout all ages, more- 

 over, reports have existed of masses of stone of various size 

 falling from the sky, preceded by vivid light and explosion ; 

 and these occurrences, as might be supposed, have in all 

 former times and by every people, been similarly made the 

 subject of superstitious belief. The Ancyle or sacred shield 

 of Numa, the holy Kaaba of Mecca, the sword of the Mon- 

 golian Emperor, and the great stone of the pyramid at 



* 1. Becherches sur les Etoiles Filantes. Par MM. Coulvier-Gravier et 

 Saigey. Introduction Historique. Paris, 1847. 



2. Catalogue of Observations of Luminous Meteors. By the Eev. Baden 

 Powell, M.A., F.R.S., Savilian Professor of Geometry, Oxford. In Reports of 

 British Association, for 1847, 1848, 1849, 1850, 1851. 



3. Humboldfs Cosmos. Translated under the superintendence of Lieut.-Col. 

 Sabine. Vol. I. Section on Aerolites. 



