ELECTRICITY. Ill 



electricity. The changes of wind and alterations 

 of the form of the clouds are generally accom- 

 panied with changes in these electrical indica- 

 tions. Every one knows that a thunder-cloud 

 is strongly charged with the electric fluid, (if it 

 be a fluid,) and that the stroke of the lightning is 

 an electrical discharge. We may add that it 

 appears, by recent experiments, that a transfer 

 of electricity between plants and the atmosphere 

 is perpetually going on during the process of 

 vegetation. 



We cannot trace very exactly the precise cir- 

 cumstances, in the occurrences of the atmos- 

 pheric regions, which depend on the influence of 

 the laws of electricity : but we are tolerably 

 certain, from what has been already noticed, that 

 if these laws did not exist, or were very different 

 from what they now are, the action of the clouds 

 and winds, and the course of vegetation, would 

 also be other than it now is. 



It is therefore at any rate very probable that 

 electricity has its appointed and important pur- 

 poses in the economy of the atmosphere. And 

 this being so, we may see a use in the thunder- 

 storm and the stroke of the lightning. These 

 violent events are, with regard to the electricity 

 of the atmosphere, what winds are with regard to 

 heat and moisture. They restore the equilibrium 

 where it has been disturbed, and carry the fluid 



