429 
Bat the Academy of Sciences, influenced doubtless by what 
had been published in England, deputed Biot to examine the 
matter. His report being satisfactory, the fall of meteoric 
stones was admitted to be a well-ascertained fact coming 
within the domain of science. 
Mr. King, in his treatise, refers to Holy Scripture in con- 
firmation of the fall of stones from heaven in these words : — 
In the Acts of the Holy Apostles we read that the chief magistrate at 
Ephesus began his harangue to the people by saying, “Ye men of Ephesus, 
what man is there that knoweth not how that the city of the Ephesians is a 
worshipper of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down 
from Jupiter, or rather, as the original Greek has it, “ of that which fell down 
from Jupiter.” And the learned Greaves leads us to conclude this image of 
Diana to have been nothing but a conical or pyramidal stone that fell from 
the clouds ; for he tells us, on unquestionable authorities, that many others 
of the images of heathen deities were merely such. 
And again : — 
And in Holy Writ also a remembrance of similar events is preserved. For 
when the royal psalmist says, “ The Lord also thundered out of heaven, and 
the Highest gave his thunder : hailstones, and coals of fire ” /—the latter 
expression, in consistency with common sense, and conformably to the right 
meaning of language, cannot but allude to some such phenomena as we have 
been describing. '’And especially, as in the cautious translation of the Seventy, 
a Greek word is used, which decidedly means real hard substances made red 
hot , and not mere appearances of fire or flame. 
Whilst, therefore, with the same sacred writer, we should be led to con- 
sider all these powerful operations as the works of God, “ Who casteth forth 
his ice like morsels and should be led to consider “ fire and hail, snow and 
vapours, wind and storm, as fulfilling his word,” we should also be led to 
perceive that the objections to Holy Writ, founded on a supposed impos- 
sibility of the truth of what is written in the Book of Joshua concerning the 
stones that fell from heaven on the army of the Canaanites, are only founded 
in ignorance and error. 
The earliest record that we have of the fall of an aerolite 
is of one that fell at AEgos Potamos, 465 b.c. It is so well 
described by Plutarch in his life of Lysander, that I quote the 
passage in full, more especially as it throws light on the 
opinions held by the ancient Greeks on the causes of such 
phenomena. 
There were those who said that the stars of Castor and Pollux appeared 
on each side the helm of Lysander’s ship, when he first set out against the 
Athenians. Others thought that a stone, which according to the common 
opinion fell from heaven, was an omen of his overthrow. It fell at /E gos 
Potamos, and was of prodigious size. The people of the Chersonesus hold it 
