145 
mosphere is unnecessary. The sulphur 
will burn till the whole oxygen, which 
the nitre furnishes, be consumed _ It is 
Not necessary, n the present argument, 
to assume the existence of nitre in thie 
bowels of the earth, in such grey see 
to the sulphur therein contained as takes 
place in our gun-powder, All that is 
necessary to the present argument is, 
that ignition, or inflammation, may hes 
produced without theec: mmmiunication of. 
our conimon air. Inso vas- and various 
regions as, the interior earth, a world 
withina world, there may be, and no doubt 
are, many powers and principles of which 
we are ignorant; or the same power 
May exist under different torms 
I -shall here produce an example of 
this va case, which is applicab'e to the 
question mn heediin other respects. Heat 
3s occasioned by the rays of the sun con- 
‘centrated, and likewise by the fluid of 
electricity concentrated Both the hehe 
of the sun, and electricity are therefore 
elementary fire. Hence also we infer 
their identity, for’ two -different sub- 
stances cannot by any meaiis produce 
constantly the same effect. when put i 
the same circumstances; which both light 
and electricity do in this case, merely by 
concentration, or discharging: great quan~ 
tity of the fluid upon a small portion of 
matier, Farther on the subject ofelectri- 
ity, as it is connected with the present 
guestion, Sir William Hamilion informs us, 
that the red-hot stones thrown up by Vesu- 
vius, 1766, were perfectly transparent; 
and he makes the sime remark on ther 
eet stream of Java which issued from 
this voleano in 1779. This aR PE anee 
could not be the mere effect of heat, for 
“mere heat with us will not make a Solid 
body transparent. And these stoves, we 
are sure, were not in a state of fusion, 
or the resistance of the air would have. 
broke them all to pieces, even supposing, 
what is very improbable, that they were 
detached in such a state from the rest of 
the lava. For the transparency, there- 
fore, we must have recourse to electricity, 
which, as appears by repeated experi- 
ments. has, m some cases, the property 
of rendering opaque bodies transparent. 
It is probable that volcanic fires take 
their rise from electricity -—though the in- 
ternal parts of the earth may be i inacces- 
sible to the rays of the sun, here is a prin- 
ciple that pervades it "throughout its 
whole extent, even the hardest metals, 
which are tnawn to be the best pondee- 
tors: ‘a principle, as well adapted to the 
The Enquirer. —No. XXIV. 
[Sept. 1, 
kindling of fire, as the concentrated rays 
of the sun. It may be proper on the 
present question, concerning the nucleus, 
to say something, 
Fifthly, of the density of the earth. 
This is calcu'ated from the observations 
of Dr. Maskelyne, Astroncmer Royal, at 
the Mountain “Shihallion, in Perthshire, 
in the year 1774-5-6, and deduced as fol- 
lows: ‘The atiraction of the mountain on 
a plummet was observed an both siles 
of it, its mass being computed from: 
a number of sections. in ali directions, 
and consisting of ston These data 
being then compat ‘ed with the -known 
attraction and’ magnitade of the earth, 
gave, by proportion, its mean density 3 
which ts to that of water as nme to two, 
uae tO commen sione as nme to five’; 
from whence, as well as from the con- 
siderstions stated abeve, it may be pre- 
sumed that the interna! parts of the earth 
conrui great quantities of metals. In 
short, from a general survey of the sur- 
face, and exploration of the internal parts 
of this earth, we are led to apply to the 
whole ¢ globe, what Milton says of a single 
mountain in the vicinity of Pandemo- 
nium, , 
There stood a hill not rar, whose grisly top 
Belch’d fire and rolling smoke; the rest 
entire. (i 
Shone with a glossy surf, undoubted sign 
‘That in his womb was hid metallic ore, 
The work of sulphur * 
But lastly, the central parts of the 
earth, instead of being a place of tor- 
ment, is the vital source of a beneficent 
heat, which revives and animates vege- 
tation, and maintains hfe over the face 
of the globe. And, among innumerable 
instances of wise ae benevolent designs, 
it may be observed, that, were the ar= 
rangement in the structure of the globe 
inverted, and masses of ore, which chiefly 
form the nucleus of the globe, placed 
above the different kinds of earth, the 
siniling face of nature would be chanyed 
into an arid desert. For, it is observed, 
that all kinds of metate: ores are inimi- 
cal and destructive to vegetation. 
a a ee I a ag me 
* Paradise Lost, Book I. 1. 670-74. 
- + On the materials dug out of copper and 
other mines which have been deposited and 
Iain on the surface of the earth for half a 
century, there is not, at this dav, the smallest 
appearance of vegetation. Wherever there 
are mines in mountains or plains, the soil 
above them is remarkably bleak and at 
or 
