4* 



answering letters from any stranger that may choose to ask 

 questions, his house searched, his grounds ransacked \ and, 

 if the circumstance be very singular, he has the additional 

 pleasure of having every word he says disbelieved on the sub- 

 ject. It was my good fortune to tumble into this predica- 

 ment by a stone falling near my house in the country : and 

 though I have been called upon, both publicly and privately, 

 for a thousand accounts, and have answered innumerable 

 inquiries from the ingenious, and those who had no in- 

 genuity whatever ; yet, as curiosity is a stream that never 

 ceases, I found that this said stream might flow on for ever. 

 I made one resolution, therefore, once for all. I was re^- 

 solved to consign the stone in question to some public 

 museum, where public curiosity might be amply gratified, 

 and to deliver with it the most accurate account I was able 

 to take from living witnesses on the spot, as I was at that 

 time engaged on business in London. Mr. Sowerby, the 

 publisher of a very ingenious work on mineralogy, has now 

 the stone in his possession; and I doubt not the delineation 

 of it, which accompanies this account, is extremely ac- 

 curate and faithful. 



The stone, therefore, coming from where it may, or 

 bringing with it, in the words of Hamlet, 



" Airs froin heaven, or blasts from hell," 



will no longer {( blush unseen," but be subject to be ex- 

 amined, disputed, and commented upon by every philoso- 

 pher in the United Kingdom, who may choose to visit the 

 Museum of Mr. Sowerby, where they may, if possible, settle 

 those points which I could never settle, though many of 

 my inquirers seemed to think it mighty easy — viz : What 

 projectile force could throw a stone of 56 pounds in weight 

 from any volcano upon earth to the spot near my house 

 where the stone fell ? Whether it might not come from some 

 volcano in the Moon ? an idea to which French Sgavans 

 much incline : or, Whether a flash of lightning striking into 



