NATURAL APPEARANCES 



Thunder Storms. 



At a season wherein nature presents to our eyes 

 none but pleasing, cheerful scenes, there are some 

 people, notwithstanding, who still complain and 

 murmur. Summer they say, would indeed be de- 

 lightful, if storms did not come to disturb and banish 

 all joy from their souls The fear of thunder and 

 storms is chiefly owing to the opinion of their being 

 effects of the wrath of heaven, and ministers of its 

 vengeance. For if, on the contrary, we considered 

 how much these storms contribute to purify the air 

 from numberless noxious vapours, and to fertilize 

 the earth ; if w r e would take proper precautions 

 against the terrible effects of lightning, the storms 

 would cease to be so dreadful to us, and would ra- 

 ther inspire gratitude than terror. Alas ! we should 

 soon change our language, if God, provoked at our 

 ingratitude and complaints, was to deprive us of the 

 blessings we derive from thunder storms. It is 

 true, that we are not capable of pointing out all the 

 advantages which accrue from them ; but the little 

 we know is sufficient to fill our hearts with gratitude 

 towards our great Benefactor. Let us represent to 

 ourselves an atmosphere loaded with noxious and 

 pestilential vapours which thicken more and more 

 by the continual exhalations of earthly bodies, so 

 many of which are corrupt and poisonous We 

 must breathe this air ; the preserv ation or destruc- 

 tion of our existence depends upon it. The salubrity 

 or unwholesomeness of the air gives us life or death. 



