314 the beautiful ladder. 
“This state of things was but an illustration 
of the general misconception that once charac¬ 
terized the mass of society, by which the w'orks 
and providences of God were perverted, chang¬ 
ing into tokens of wrath what were sent as 
expressions of his benevolence. 
“Whence these fiery orbs came, and what 
they really are, the learned have not yet de¬ 
cided. They may be fragments of some ex¬ 
ploded planet or star, the condensation of some 
mighty nebulosity or gaseous accumulation; but, 
be this as it may, there are other shooting aero¬ 
lites from unknown regions with whose sub¬ 
stance science is well acquainted. Like the 
above named, these luminous visitors probably 
come from some unknown sphere beyond the 
orbit of our earth, and we are thus put on a 
reversed track which leads us far away from 
mundane surroundings. 
“The bolides^ or aerolites, are largely com¬ 
posed of iron. Different from the shooting 
stars, which explode as soon as they touch our 
atmosphere, these aerolites pass with a fiery trail 
to the earth, where they bury themselves with a 
loud explosion, and with a degree of heat that 
makes the ground smoke for days afterward. 
