382 On the Meteors of 15th November. 



Though there was no moon, when we first beheld them, their bril- 

 liancy was so great, that we could, at times, read common sized print, 

 without much difficulty, and the light which they afforded was much 

 whiter than that of the moon, in the clearest and coldest night, when 

 the ground is covered with snow. The air itself, the face of the 

 earth, as far as we could behold it — all the surrounding objects, and 

 the very countenances of men, wore the aspect, and hue of death, 

 occasioned by the continued, pallid glare, of these countless meteors, 

 which in all their grandeur, flamed "lawless through the sky." 

 There was a grand, peculiar, and indescribable, gloom on all around 

 — an awe inspiring sublimity on all above, while 



-" the sanguine flood 



Rolled a broad slaughter o'er the plains of Heaven, 



And Nature's self did seem to totter on the brink of time !" 



Forcibly were we reminded of that remarkable passage in Reve- 

 lations, which speaks of the great red dragon, as drawing the third 

 part of the stars of heaven, and casting them to the earth ; and if it 

 be a figurative expression, that figure appeared to be fully painted on 

 the broad canopy of the sky, — spread over with sheets of light, and 

 thick with streams of rolling fire. There was scarcely a space in the 

 firmament which was not filled at every instant with these falling stars, 

 nor on it, could you in general perceive any particular difference, in 

 appearance; still at times they would shower down in groups — calling 

 to mind the " fig tree, casting her untimely figs when shaken by a 

 mighty wind," and their phosphorescent burning flashed around you 

 like the mighty flash of lightning on the expanse of water, though 

 more light and pallid. 



The long luminous traces which they left behind, would last for 

 several seconds ; and at times, when the nucleus had entirely disap- 

 peared, those traces or streams, varying from ten to a hundred yards 

 in length, would linger on the sky and continue to shine in all their 

 brilliancy for two or three minutes, and then expire in a twinkling of 

 an eye. 



Their size was about the same as that of the morning star, — they 

 moved something higher, and their velocity was much faster than that 

 of the common meteors, and from the place of their starting to where 

 they seemed to expire, it was, we would suppose, from ten to forty 

 degrees. 



You would now and then see some solitary ones, resembling balls 

 of livid fire, like burning rockets shooting towards the earth, and emit- 

 ting numerous sparks, as they boldly rushed into the more dense and 

 vaporous atmosphere — acquiring as they fell, a more baleful and mur- 

 derous aspect, and like incendiary spies, portending ruin and de- 

 struction. 



