•4?o Dr. crawford on the Power that 
fire was contemplated, for a long fuccefiion of ages, by a great 
part of mankind, appears to be one of the moft curious cir- 
cumftances in the hiflory of antient opinions. To account for 
this we may obferve, that there is no principle in nature, oh-? 
vious to the fenfes, which produces fuch important effedts in 
the material fyflem, and which, at the fame time, in the mode 
of its operation, is fo obfcure and incomprehenfible. 
It appears to be accumulated in an immenfe quantity in the 
fun and fixed flats, from whence its beneficial influence fe.ems 
to be continually difFufed over the univerfe : it is the great 
inflrument by means of which the changes of the feafons are 
effedted ; the diverfity of climates is chiefly owing ta. the 
various proportions in which it is diflributed throughout' the 
earth. If we add to this the mighty alterations. which have 
been produced in human affairs by the introduction of artificial 
fire, by its employment in the feparation of metals from their 
ores, and. in the various arts which are. fubfervient to the 
comfort, the ornament,, and the preservation, of the fpecies, 
it will not appear furprizing, that in a rude and ignorant age, 
this wonderful principle fhould have been confidered . as endued 
with life and intelligence, and that it fhould have become the 
objedt of religious, veneration... 
In the dark ages the alchy mills regarded pure fire as the 
refidence of the Deity : they conceived it to be uncreated and 
immenfe,, and attributed to its influence moll of the pheno- 
mena of nature. Indeed, it is not wonderful, that they fhould 
have afligned it a high rank in the fcale of being, as it was, the. 
great agent which they employed in the chymical analyfis of 
bodies, and, was. the inflrumentaf thofe difcoyeries that attradled 
fuch univerfal admiration, and that enabled them fo fucceflf- 
fully to impofe upon, the ignorance and credulity of. the times* 
Upon 
