1 883.] Recent Progress of Electricity. 459 
over and destroying towers, chimneys, and other lofty 
buildings that chanced to attract his notice. And the fadt 
of his having honourably kept this promise has led to a 
further study of his powers and peculiarities, and to the 
cultivation of more friendly relations with him than had 
been done before. 
He is constantly hovering and brooding over the earth, 
mantling and pillowing himself in the clouds, sometimes 
marshalling them in hostile array, and furnishing them with 
artillery against each other ; travelling with them in their 
movements, and descending with them in the form of rain 
to refresh and fructify the ground ; ascending, also, as well 
as decending, by secret and imperceptible movements, in the 
performance of the innumerable services which God has 
ordained him to perform. Though such is the usual and 
gentle manner of his transition between earth and sky, yet 
it sometimes happens, when he finds himself unduly confined 
on the one side, that he will make a sudden and irresistible 
bound to the other, overturning, blasting, and destroying 
whatever stands in his way, and emitting a roar of thunder, 
surpassing in awe-inspiring grandeur the cries of all the wild 
beasts of the forest blended together. 
By following in the wake of the American savant , electri- 
cians have succeeded in greatly mitigating — in many 
instances, in entirely averting — the calamitous effects of such 
occurrences. Knowing the partiality he has for certain of 
the family of the metals, and the willingness with which he 
will accept of their guidance and means of transport, they 
have constructed roads (literally rods) of iron or copper 
between the earth and the highest points of the chimneys 
and lofty buildings that were wont to be injured by him. 
These rods are pointed, and often trifurcate, at the upper 
extremity, so that the Geni is more easily arrested and 
attracted by them ; and when induced to enter, he is 
gradually but quickly led down to the earth till all danger 
of a sudden outburst is past. 
For many ages mankind were almost unaware of the 
presence among them of this powerful spirit, nor did they 
know that he was unceasingly employed in their service ; 
and much less were they able to summon him at will to 
appear visibly and tangibly, and to exhibit to them some of 
his wonderful powers. When at last they did succeed in 
this, the utmost wonder and interest were excited by the 
display, although the form it took was what might at present 
be looked upon as mere childish tricks compared with the 
stupendous and beneficent powers of which he is now proved 
Z H Z 
