84 ' PLIKY'S NATrEAL HISTOET. [Book IT. 
yoked by King Porsenna. And L. Piso\ a very respectable 
author, states in the first book of his Annals, that this had 
been frequently done before his time by Is^uma, and that 
TuUus Hostilius, imitating him, but not having properly 
performed the ceremonies, was struck with the lightning^. 
We have also groves, and altars, and sacred places, and, among 
the titles of Jupiter, as Stator, Tonans, and Peretrius, we 
have a Jupiter Elicius^. The opinions entertained on this 
point are very various, and depend much on the dispositions 
of different individuals. To believe that we can command 
nature is the mark of a bold mind, nor is it less the mark of 
a feeble one to reject her kindness^. Our knowledge has 
been so far useful to us in the interpretation of thunder, 
that it enables us to predict what is to happen on a certain 
day, and we learn either that our fortune is to be entirely 
changed, or it discloses events which are concealed from us ; 
as is proved by an infinite number of examples, public and 
private. Wherefore let these things remain, according to 
the order of nature, to some persons certain, to others doubt- 
ful, by some approved, by others condemned. I must not, 
however, omit the other circumstances connected with them 
which deserve to be related. 
CHAP. 55. (54.) — GEISTERAL LAWS OP LIGHTKINO. 
It is certain that the lightning is seen before the thunder 
is heard, although they both take place at the same time. 
Nor is this wonderful, since light has a greater velocity than 
sound. Nature so regulates it, that the stroke and the sound 
coincide^ ; the sound is, however, produced by the discharge 
of the thunder, not by its stroke. Eut the air is impelled 
1 For a notice of Piso, see Lemaire, i. 208. 
^ We have an account of the death of Tullus Ho^ihus in Livy, i. 31. 
*^ "ab eUciendo, seu quod precationibus coelg evocaretur, id nomen 
traxit." This is confirmed by the following lines from Ovid, Fast. ui. 
327, 328 
" Ehciunt coelo te, Jupiter : imde minores 
Nimc quoque te celebrant, EHciumque vocant." 
" beneficiis abrogare vires." 
s " ictum autem et sonitum congruere, ita modulante natura." This 
remark is not only incorrect, but appears to be at variance both with 
what precedes and what follows. 
