THE EARltt. 255 



to escape by flight ; pigeons, crows, rooks, and many more of 

 the smaller and feebler kinds were brought down. An unhappy 

 young man, who had not time to take shelter, was killed ; one 

 of his eyes was struck out of his head, and his body was all over 

 black with bruises ; another had just time to escape, but not 

 without the most imminent danger, his body being bruised all 

 over. But what is most extraordinary, all this fell within the 

 compass of a mile. 



Mezeray, in his history of France, tells us of a shower of hail 

 much more terrible, which happened in the year 1310, when 

 the French monarch invaded Italy. There was, for a time, a 

 horrid darkness, thicker than that of midnight, which continued 

 till the terrors of mankind were changed to still more terrible 

 objects, by thunder and lightning breaking the gloom, and bring- 

 ing on such a shower of hail, as no history of human calamities 

 could equal. These hailstones were of a bluish colour; and 

 some of them weighed not less than a hundred pounds. A noi- 

 some vapour of sulphur attended the storm. All the birds and 

 beasts of the country were entirely destroyed. Numbers of the 

 human race suffered the same fate. But what is still more ex- 

 trao"dinary, the fishes found no protection from their native ele- 

 ment ; but were equal sufferers in the general calamity. 



These, however, ai"e terrors that are seldom exerted in our 

 mild climates. They only serve to mark the page of history 

 with wonder; and stand as admonitions to mankind, of the 

 various stores of punishment, in the hands of the Deity, which 

 his power can treasure up, and his mercy can suspend. 



In the temperate zones, therefore, meteors are rarely found 

 thus terrible j but between the tropics, and near the poles, they 

 assume very dreadful and various appearances. In those incle- 

 ment regions, where cold and heat exert their chief power, 

 meteors seem peculiarly to have fixed their residence. They 

 are seen there in a thousand tenifying forms, astonishing to 

 Europeans, yet disregarded by the natives, from their frequency 

 The wonders of air, fire, and water, are there combined, to pro- 

 duce the most tremendous effects ; and to sport with the labour- 

 und apprehensions of mankind. Lightnings, that flash without 

 noise ; huiricanes, that tear up the earth ; clouds, that all at 

 once pour down their contents, and jjroduce an instant deluge ; 

 mock suns ; northern lights, that illuniinate half the hemisolicre ; 



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