198 MEMOIRS OF 



Such powers in this artful lightning are 

 compared to thofe of the natural; its de- 

 leterious excefs, to the fire of heaven that 

 fcathes the oak ; its milder degree, to the 

 fairy rings, which the poet believes to have 

 been imprinted by the flalhes of the thun- 

 der {term darting on the grafs and. circu- 

 larly blighting it. 



The difaftrous fate of profeflbr Richman, 

 at Peterfburgh, purfuing electric expert 

 ment with fatal temerity, rifes to the eye, 

 and makes the reader a fhuddering fpec- 

 tator of its progrefs and refult. 



Dr. Franklin, with his preferving rods, 

 is compared to the celebrated Florentine 

 gem, Cupid fnatching the lightnings from 

 Jupiter, which the poet confiders as a 

 noble allegory, representing Divine Juftice 

 difarmed by Divine Love. The poetic 

 fcene, from the Gem, is one of the fweeteft 

 little dramas of this poem ; fo fweet, there 



is 



