THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 7 I 



universe there is unity of design in physical constitution as well as 

 in mechanical arrangement. 



By the combined rotation and revolution of the earth, that por- 

 tion of it where it is sunset moves from its zenith, whilst that portion 

 where it is sunrise moves towards its zenith, or rather towards that 

 portion of the zodiac nearest its zenith, and thus the latter has more 

 chance of coming in contact with isolated flying masses. Those 

 falling at sunset must overtake the earth in its course, and thus show 

 by their velocity that it is other force than planetary attraction which 

 propelled them. In this connection Proctor puts forward the idea, 

 that the destruction ot Sodom and Gomorrah was occasioned by a 

 meteoric down-fall, and this ingenious theory has been followed by 

 Mr. E. L. Garbett, a well-known architect. Tempel's comet, in 

 whose track the November meteors travel, is shown to have passed 

 very near the earth about the time to which tradition assigns the 

 destruction of these cities. Supposing that the meteors, composing 

 or accompanying this comet, broke through the air, they would, if 

 strewn with proportionate density, fall in a compact shower on what- 

 ever part of the earth's surface happened to be most fully exposed 

 to them. Now it is distinctly stated, " The sun was risen upon the 

 earth before Lot entered Zoar. Then the Lord rained brimstone and 

 fire out of heaven;" so that at that time the destroyed cities lay almost 

 centrally on that disk of the earth which was turned toward the 

 radiant of the November meteors. Thus the earth at its full speed 

 of I TOO miles a minute, or i8 miles a second, meeting the Novem- 

 ber meteors, which travel at a speed of from 24 to 40 miles, would 

 cause just such a catastrophe. As a still further corroboration of 

 this, we know that the whole plain, the site of these cities, is im- 

 pregnated with salt, of which sodium is the chief component, and 

 which has, as before shown, been detected by Sir Wm. Herschel in 

 spectroscopic analysis in the yellow bands of meteoric light. 



The discomfiture of the Amorites, mentioned in the Book of 

 Joshua, may have been from a similar cause; the account furnished 

 being that "the Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon 

 them." 



In the Acts of the Apostles, where the town clerk of Ephesus 

 spoke of the image which fell down from Jupiter, the word " image " 

 is not in the original, the reading there being " that which " fell 

 down. 



