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Add to this, that feme Foreigners among us, 
from Italy, and thofe Parts, where Earthquakes are 
frequent, obferving thefe Lights, and the particular 
Temper of the Air, did actually forefee the Event 
of an Earthquake. All thefe Matters concur, in 
fhewing, that the Earth was in a State of Electricity, 
beyond what has ever been in our Memory. - 
Admitting this, there is nothing wanting, to pro : 
duce the wonderful Effcdt of an Earthquake, but 
the Touch of any non-eledtric Body 5 and that mult 
necelfarily be had ab extra, from the Region of the 
Air, or Atmofpherei 
We had lately a very pretty Difcourfe read here, 
from Mr. Franklyn of ^Philadelphia *, concerning 
Thundcrgufts, Lignts, and like Meteors. He well 
folves them by the Touch of Clouds, rais’d from 
the Sea (which are Non-electrics), and of Clouds 
rais'd from Exhalations of the Land (which are elec- 
trify \1) : That little Snap, which we hear, in our 
eledrical Experiments, when produc’d by a thoufand 
Miles Compafs of Clouds, and that re-echoed from 
Cloud to Cloud, the Extent of the Firmament, 
makes that Thunder, which affrightens us. 
From the fame Principle I infer, that, if a non- 
eledric Cloud difeharges its Contents, upon any 
Part of the Earth, when in a high-eledrify’d State, 
an Earthquake muff necellarily enfue. As a Shock 
of the electric Tube in the human Bo'dy, fo the 
Shock of many Miles Compafs of folid Earth, nuift 
needs be an Earthquake 5 and that Snap, from the 
Contad, be the horrible uncouth Noife thereof, 
N n n n 2 I have 
* Read Nov. 1 6 , 1749. pubiifh’d with enher Traits on Electri- 
city, by Mr. Peter Collinjon F. R. S. ~Limdon 1750. %vo. 
/ 
