gSi HISTOttY OF 



t'me to condense into a visible form. Hail, the Cartesians say, 

 is a frozen cloud, half melted, and frozen again in its descent. 

 A hoar-frost is but a frozen dew. Lightning we know to be an 

 electrical flash, produced by the opposition of two clouds ; and 

 thunder to be the sound proceeding from the same, continued by 

 an echo reverberated among them. It would be to very little 

 purpose to attempt explaining exactly how these wonders are 

 effected; we have as little insight into the manner in which 

 these meteors are found to operate upon each other ; and there- 

 fore we must be contented with a detail rather of their effects 

 than their causes. 



In our own gentle climate, where nature wears the mildest 

 and kindest aspect, every meteor seems to befriend us. With 

 us, rains fall in refreshing showers, to enliven our fields, and to 

 paint the landscape with a more vivid beauty. Snows cover the 

 earth, to preserve its tender vegetables from the inclemency of 

 the departing winter. The dews descend with such an imper- 

 ceptible fall as no way injures the constitution. Even thunder 

 is seldom injurious ; and it is often wished for by the husband- 

 man to clear the air, and to kiU the numberless insects that are 

 noxious to vegetation. Hail is the most injurious meteor that is 

 known in our climate ; but it seldom visits us with violence, and 

 then its fury is but transient. 



One of the most dreadful storms we hear of,' was that of 

 Hertfordshire, in the year 1697. It began by thunder and light- 

 ning, which continued for some hours, when suddenly a black 

 cloud came forward, against the vnnA, and marked its passage 

 with devastation. The hailstones which it poured down, being 

 measured, were found to be many of them fourteen inches round, 

 and consequently as large as a bowling-green ball. Wherever 

 it came, every plantation fell before it ; it tore up the ground, 

 split great oaks, and other trees, without number ; the fields of 

 rye were cut down, as if levelled with a scythe ; wheat, oats, and 

 barley, suffered the same damage. The inhabitants found but a 

 precarious shelter, even in their houses, their tiles and windows 

 being broke by the violence of the hail-stones, which, by the 

 force with which they came, seemed to have descended from a 

 ^reat height. 'The birds, in this universal wreck, vain'jy tried 



1 Phil. Trans, vol. u. p. H8. 



