THUNDERBOLTS 141 



thought of him as using in liis cloudy home tlio famihar 

 bow and arrow of this nether phmot. To us nowaihiys, if 

 wo were to begin forming the idea for ourselves all over 

 again dc novo, it would be far more natural to tliink of tlio 

 thunder as the noise of a big gun, of the lightning as the 

 ilasli of the powder, and of the sM|)|)osed ' bolt ' as a sliell 

 or bullet. There is really a ridiculous resemblance between 

 a thunderstorm and a discharge of artillery. ]>ut the old 

 conception derived from so numy generations of primitive 

 men has Jicld its own against such mere modern devices 

 as gunpowder and rillo balls ; and none of the objects 

 connnonly shown as thunderbolts are ever round : they 

 are distinguished, whatever their origin, by the connnon 

 peculiarity that they more or less closely resemble a dart 

 or arrowhead. 



Let us begin, then, by clearly disembarrassing our 

 minds of any lingering belief in the existence of thunder- 

 bolts. There are absolutely no such things known to 

 science. The two real phenomena that underlie the fable 

 are simply thunder and lightning. A thunderstorm is 

 merely a series of electrical discharge's between one cloud 

 and another, or between clouds and tiio eaith ; and these 

 discharges manifest themselves to our senses under two 

 forms — to the eye as liglitnhig, to the ear as thunder. All 

 that passes in each case is a huge spark — a commotion, 

 not a material object. It is in principle just like the spark 

 from an electrical machine ; but while the most powerful 

 machine of human construction will only send a spark for 

 three feet, the enormous electrical apparatus provided for 

 us l)y nature will seiul one for four, five, or even ten miles. 

 Though lightning when it touches the earth always secuna 

 to us to come from the clouds to the ground, it is by no 

 moans certain that the real course nuiy not at least occa- 

 sionally be in the opposite direction. All we know is that 



