-l-vi JL X 
have agreed in calling metaphysical : such 
were the discussions between Clarke and 
Leibnitz concerning the free agency of man; 
su ‘ ^ were the disputes concerning identity 
imd diversity which formerly agitated the 
schools, and those upon the origin of evil • 
and if we were called upon to point out a 
most able and rational work, into which me- 
m Ji i 
tapiiysics are introduced with propriety and 
ability, we should name Cud worth’s 'Intel- 
lectual System. 
^ ^ RSI IS. See Anatomy. 
M L I LOR. r l his term is bv some writers 
made to comprehend all the 'visible pheno- 
mena ot meteorology, but it is more gene- 
rally confined to luminous bodies appearing 
suddenly at uncertain times, and with more 
or less ot motion in the atmosphere. These 
may be reduced under three ( lasses, viz. fire- 
balls, falling or shooting stars, and ignes fa- 
tui. 
I hose phenomena which are classed toge- 
ther under the general appellation of fire- 
balls, were divided by the ailtients into seve- 
ral species, according to the external form or 
appearance which they assumed, 't hey were 
also regarded by them in a much more for- 
midable light than by us ; as being the cer- 
tain prognostics of great and awful events in 
the moral and political world. Even the phi- 
losophic Cicero himself speaks of the “ ab occi- 
dente faces,” as the certain harbingers or in- 
dications of those bloody scenes which in his 
time convulsed and desolated the Roman 
commonwealth. 
Under the general name of comets, Pliny 
enumerates a variety of these phenomena. If 
the fire commences at one extremity of the 
meteor , and burns by degrees, he terms it, 
from its form and appearance, a lamp or 
torch ; if an extended mass of fire passes lon- 
gitudinally through the atmosphere, he calls 
it a dart; and it its length and magnitude are 
considerable, and it maintains its station for 
any space of time, it is a beam ; and if the 
clouds seem to part, and emit a quantity of 
/ire, he terms it a chasm; but this last ap- 
pears to be, strictly speaking, an electrical 
phenomenon, indeed only a strong and vivid 
dash of lightning. 
Several instances of these meteors are re- 
corded by the same author. During the 
spectacle of gladiators exhibited by Germa- 
meus, one of t hem passed rapidly by the faces 
of the spectators at noon-day. A" meteor of 
that species which he calls a beam, he adds, 
was seen when the Lacedemonians were de- 
feated at sea, in that memorable engagement 
which lost them the empire at sea. ^ He also 
mentions a sanguineous kind of meteor, a 
dame as red as blood, which fell from heaven 
about, the 107th Olympiad, when Philip of 
Macedon was concerting his wicked plan for 
enslaving the republics of Greece. He re- 
lates, that when he was himself on the watch 
during the night in the Roman camp, he was 
a spectator pf a similar appearance- — a num- 
ber of resplendent lights fixed upon the pa- 
■lisadoes of the camp, similar, he says, to 
•those which mariners speak of as attaching 
themselves to the masts and yards of a ship. ° 
In tropical climates these meteors are more 
common and more stupendous than in these 
more temperate regions. “ As I was riding 
in Jamaica,’’ says Mr. Barbham, “ one morn- 
ing from my hub tation, situated about three 
miles north-west from St. Jago de la Vega, I 
saw a ball of lire, appearing to me about the 
bigness of a bomb, swiftly falling down with 
a great blaze. At first I thought it fell into 
the town; but v. hen I came nearer, l saw 
many people gathered together, a little to 
inp southward, in the Savannah, to whom I 
rode up, to inquire the cause of their meet- 
mg: they were admiring, as I found, the 
ground’s being strangely broken up and 
ploughed by a bail of fire, which, as they 
said, fell down there. ] observed there were 
many holes in the ground; one in the middle 
of the bigness of a man’s head, and five or six 
smaller round about it, of the bigness of one’s 
fist, and so deep as not to be fathomed by 
such implements as were at hand It was 
observed also, that all the green herbage was 
burnt up near the holes; and there continued 
a strong smell of sulphur near the place for 
some time after.” 
Ulloa gives an account of one of a similar 
kind at Quito. “ About nine at night,” says 
he, “ a globe of fire appeared to rise from 
the side ol t lie mountain Piehinca, and so 
large, that it spread a light over all the part 
ot the city facing that mountain, The house 
where 1 lodged looking that way, 1 was sur- 
prised with an extraordinary light darting 
tnrougli the crevices of the window-shutters? 
On this appearance, and the bustle «f the 
people in the street, [ hastened to the win- 
dow, and came time enough to see it, in the 
middle of its career, which continued from 
vest to south, till I lost sight of it, being in- 
tercepted by a mountain that lay between 
me and it. It was round, and its apparent 
diameter about a foot. I observed it to rise 
from the sides of Pichinea, although, to judge 
from its course, it was behind that mountain 
where this congeries of inflammable matter 
was kindled. In the first half of its visible 
course it emitted a prodigious effulgence, 
then it began gradually to grow dim ; so that, 
upon its disappearing behind the intervening 
mountain, its light was very faint.” 
Meteors ot this kind are very frequently 
seen between the tropics; but they some- 
times also visit the more temperate regions 
of Europe. We have the description of a 
very extraordinary one, given us by Monta- 
nari, that serves f o' shew to what great heights, 
in our atmosphere, these vapours are found 
to ascend. In the year 167b, a great globe 
of lire was seen at Bononia, in Italy, about 
three quarters of an hour after sunset. It 
passed westward with a most rapid course, 
and at the rate of not less than IbO miles in 
a minute, which is much swifter than the 
force of a cannon ball, and at last stood over 
the Adriatic sea. In its course it crossed 
over all Italy-; and, by computation, it could 
not have been less than 38 miles above the 
surface of the earth. In the whole line of its 
course, wherever it approached, the inhabi- 
tants below could distinctly hear it, with a 
hissing noise, resembling that of a firework. 
Having passed away to sea, towards Corsica, 
it was heard at last to go otf with a most vio- 
lent explosion, much louder than that of a 
cannon; a## immediately after, another 
noise was heard like the rattling of a great 
cart upon a stony pavement, which was pro- 
bably nothing more than the echo of the for- 
mer sound. Its magnitude, when at Bononia, 
appeared twice as long as the moon one way, 
and as broad the other; so that, considering 
its height, it could not have been less than a 
4 
mile long, and half a mile broad. From the 
height at which this was seen, and th re be- 
ing no volcano in that quarter of the world 
whence it came, it is more than probable 
that this terrible globe was kindled on some 
part of the contrary side of the globe; and 
thus, rising above the air, and passing in a 
course opposite to that of the earth’s notion 
m this manner it acquired its amazing ra- 
pidity. ° 
J wo of these meteors appeared in this 
country in the y ear i 7S3, of which a most 
particular and truly philosophical account 
and ingenious solution, by Dr. Blagden are 
pubhshed in the Philosophical Transactions 
of the following year ; and as his account will 
apply to many phenomena of the kind, we 
c annot take any better method to elucidate 
bus part of the subject, than by presenting 
our readers with a short abstract’ of this very 
curious and learned memoir. 
I he first of the two meteors in question 
was seen on the 1 8th of August, and* was, in 
appearaime, a luminous ball, which rose in 
the .V fs. VY. nearly round: it, however, 
soon became elliptical, and gradually assumed 
a tail as it ascended, and, in a certain part of 
its course, seemed to undergo a remarkable 
change, compared to bursting; after which 
i pioceeded no longer as an entire mass, 
but was apparently divided into a cluster of 
balls of different magnitudes, and all carry- 
ing or leaving a train behind, till, having 
passed t ie-east, and verging considerably to 
the south, jt gradually descended, and 'was 
nst out of sight. r I he time of its appearance 
was about sixteen minutes past nine in the 
evening and it was visible about half a mi- 
mite. Itwas seen in all parts of Great Bri- 
am, at Paris, at Nuits in Burgundy, and 
even at Rome; and is supposed to have de- 
scribed a tract of 1000 miles at least over the 
sui face of the earth. It appears to have 
burst and re-united several times; and the 
irst bursting of it which was noticed seems 
to have been somewhere over Lincolnshire, 
pernaps near the commencement of the fens. 
his change in the meteor corresponds with 
the period in w hich it suffered a deviation 
tram its course. If, indeed, the explosion 
was any kind of effort, we cannot wonder 
that the body should be diverted by it from 
its direct hue; and, on the other hand it 
seems equally probable, that if it was forced 
by any cause to change its direction, the 
consequence would naturally be a separation 
of its parts. 
Die illumination of these meteors is often 
so great as totally to obliterate the stars to 
irnme the moon look dull, and even to affect 
the spectators like the sun itself. When tins 
meteor was observed at Brussels, the moon 
appeared quite red, but w hen it was passed 
iccovered its natural light. This effect, the 
doctor remarks, must have depended on the 
contrast ot colour, and shews how ]ar<r e a 
proportion of the blue ray s enters into°that 
light which could even make the silver moon 
appear to have an excess of red. The bodv 
ol the fire-ball, even before it burst, did not 
appear of an uniform brightness, but consisted 
ot lucid and dull parts, which were constant- 
ly changing their respective positions, so that 
the whole etlect was to some ev s like <*n 
internal agitation or boiling of the matter, 
by the best accounts that could be procured 
concerning the height of the meteor, it seems 
