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SCENERY OF THE HEAVENS. 



While many meteoric appearances may simply arise from electricity, or from the inflam- 

 mable gases, it is now certain, from the proved descent of aerolites, that such bodies are 

 of extra-terrestrial origin. 



Antiquity refers us to several objects as having descended from the skies, the gifts of 

 the immortal gods. Such was the Palladium of Troy, the image of the goddess of 

 Ephesus, and the sacred shield of Numa. ^ The folly of the ancients in believing such 

 narrations has often been the subject of remark ; but, however fabulous the particular 

 cases referred to, the moderns have been compelled to renounce their scepticism respecting 

 the fact itself, of the actual transition of substances from celestial space to terrestrial 

 regions ; and no doubt the ancient faith upon this sub'ect was founded on observed events. 

 The following table, taken from the work of M. Izarn, Des Pierres tombees du Ciel, ex- 

 hibits a collection of instances of the fall of aerolites, together with the eras of their 

 descent, and the persons on whose evidence the facts rest ; but the list might be largely 

 extended. 



Some of the instances in the table are of sufficient interest to deserve a notice. 



A singular relation respecting the stone of Ensisheim on the Rhine, at which philosophy 

 once smiled incredulously, regarding it as one of the romances of the middle ages, may 

 now be admitted to sober attention as a piece of authentic history. A homely narrative 

 of its fall was drawn up at the time by order of the emperor Maximilian, and deposited 

 with the stone in the church. It may thus be rendered : "In the year of the Lord 1492, 

 on Wednesday, which was Martinmas eve, the 7th of November, a singular miracle oc- 

 curred ; for, between eleven o'clock and noon, there was a loud clap of thunder, and a 

 prolonged confused noise, which was heard at a great distance ; and a stone fell from the 

 air, in the jurisdiction of Ensisheim, which weighed two hundred and sixty pounds, and 

 the confused noise was, besides, much louder than here. Then a child saw it strike on 

 a field in the upper jurisdiction, towards the Rhine and Inn, near the district of Giscano, 



