124 PHILaSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [anNO 1751. 



over, and directs all things ; moves the ethereal spirit or fire, that moves all 

 things ; a divine necessity, but a voluntary agent, who gives the commanding 

 nod to what we commonly call nature ; the chief instrument in the most im- 

 portant operations of the vast machine, as well as in the ordinary ones ? And 

 this leads us, 



14. Lastly, in regard to the spiritual use we ought to make of these extraor- 

 dinary phenomena, or of our inquiries about them ; I shall first observe, that we 

 find abroad, that several of these earthquakes this year have been very fatal. In 

 the last we read of at Philippoli in Thrace, the whole city was destroyed, and above 

 4000 inhabitants killed. At home, where above half a score separate concussions 

 have been felt, there has not been one house thrown down, one life lost. I'his 

 ought to inspire us with a very serious reflection about them. We may ob- 

 serve, that if we did but read the works of Hippocrates, Plato, and his followers, 

 of Tully, Galen, and the like ethic writers of antiquity, whilst we study and 

 try the affections of matter, we should improve in philosophy, properly speaking ; 

 we should lift up our minds from these earthly wonders, and discern the celestial 

 monitions they present to us. 



The original meaning of the word philosophy was rightly applied to moral 

 wisdom ; we, who have improved both, should join them both together. By 

 this means we gather the truth of the highest and most excellent philosophy, to 

 be found in those volumes of first antiquity, which we call sacred; and we should 

 adore that divine light which they hold forth to us ; especially in a country where 

 the principles of true religion are open and undisguised; where the established 

 profession of it is rational, noble, and lovely; worthy of the moral governor of 

 the world." 



END OF THE FORTY-SIXTH VOLUME OF THE ORIGINAL. 



Art. I. Of a Fire-ball seen in the Air July 21, 1730. By Mr. tVm. Smith, of 

 Peterborough. Fol. XLFII, Anno 1751, p. 1.* 



On Sunday, July 22, 1750, 20 minutes before Q, in the evening, was seen 

 near Peterborough, a ball of light, seemingly about the height of the sun when 



* As this volume of the original is the first of a new series, when the Royal Society began to pub- 

 lish the Philos. Trans, themselves under the direction of their committee; on which occasion they 

 prefaced the volume with the following advertisement, and which has been since, with little variation, 

 continued to the present time in every volume; it has therefore been thought proper to print this 

 advertisement once for all. It may also be here remarked that another alteration was introduced 

 in the mode of publishing the Transactions, and which has also continued ever since, viz. that in- 



