12 NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY, 



to the phenomena of Norway, and of the north in general, and 

 thefe are more immediately my fubjecl:, than natural philofophy 

 in general; which, however, I flatter myfelf, may, in fome re- 

 fpects derive fome benefit from this work. 



I cannot forbear adding, that the northern peafant, tho' he 

 does not arrogantly pretend to inform us, what the Aurora 

 borealis is, yet he is not fo ftupid as to imagine it to be fome 

 tremendous portent of wars, the deaths of princes, and other 

 direful events, which has been the interpretation of thofe lights, 

 even till modern times, when they have been feen in France, 

 Spain, and Italy, and been made ufe of to circulate a general 

 terror and anxiety, very feldom as the omen of any happy event. 

 Yet a fignal inftance of the latter happened even in Norway, 

 and no longer ago than the middle of the laft century; which, 

 among other things fhews, the north-light formerly not to have 

 been fo very ufual even here, or not fo well known. But one 

 extraordinary circumftance is, that the perfon who interpreted 

 this light as an omen, was a profeflbr of phyfics and mathema- 

 tics, who, in the middle of the laft century, was firmly perfuaded 

 of having feen an apparition, which probably was no other than 

 the north-light; and this apparition revealed to him the impor- 

 tant and happy revolution, which, within three years after hap- 

 pened in this kingdom, when the government was changed into 

 an independent hereditary monarchy *. 



* The authority to which I can appeal for this, is in J. H. Feuftking's Gynae- 

 ceum Hasret. Fanat. p. m. 658. in thefe words: " A few years fince died here in 

 Kemberg, in his <)2<\ year,, our learned and experienced phyfician Ambrofe Rhodes,, 

 who, whilft profeflbr of natural philofophy and mathematics, at Chriftiana in Nor- 

 way, predicted from the appearances which were obferved at Eger in Norway on the 

 ill of Auguft, 1657, that Frederic III. who was then on the throne of Denmark, 

 would be invented with an unlimited fovereignty, and that the kingdom before 

 elective, would be thus made hereditary. An account of his thoughts and inferences 

 from this phenomenon, he drew up in writing at the preffing requeft of Jens Bil- 

 kens, chancellor of the kingdom. I mufb own that fome particulars in it are very 

 aftonifhing, and appear fo even to the celebrated C. S. Schurtzfleifch, who in his 

 Latin letters (which are very well worth reading) mentions it in the following man- 

 ner. " Memorabile eft in vicino oppido Kembergenfi, medici et mathematici non in- 

 glorii judicium de oftento quodam in Norvegia vifo, unde prasfagivit Regi Dania? 

 Friderico III. plenam et haereditariam poteftatem, quod eventus An. 1660, appro- 

 bavit." 



SECT. 



