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Effects of Electrified Clouds

like the waves of the sea, and emitting globes of fire so luminous, that the night became as clear as day. The effects of it were astonishing: every thing was destroyed for seven leagues round; the houses were demolished; plantations were buried in the earth; and two thousand one hundred and forty people lost their lives, besides fifteen hundred head of cattle, and a vast number of horses, goats, &c.

Another instance of a very destructive cloud, the electric qualities of which at present can scarcely be doubted, is related by Mr. Brydone, in his Tour through Malta. It appeared on the 29th of October, 1757. "About three-quarters of an hour after midnight, there was seen, to the south-west of the city of Valetta, a great black cloud, which, as it approached, changed its colour, till at last it became like a flame of fire mixed with black smoke. A dreadful noise was heard on its approach, which alarmed the whole city. It passed over the port, and came first on an English ship, which in an instant was torn in pieces, and nothing left but the hull; part of the masts, sails, and cordage, were carried to a considerable distance with the cloud. The small boats and selloques, that fell in its way, were all broken to pieces and sunk. The noise increased, and became more frightful. A sentinel, terrified at its approach, ran into his box; but both he and it were lifted up and carried into the sea, where he perished. It then traversed a considerable part of the city, and laid in ruins almost every thing that stood in its way. Several houses were laid level with the ground, and it did not leave one steeple in its passage. The bells of some of them, together with the spires, were carried to a considerable distance; the roofs of the churches demolished and beat down, &c. It went off at the north-east point of the city, and, demolishing the lighthouse, is said to have mounted up into the air with a frightful noise, and passed over the sea to Sicily, where it tore up some trees, and did other inconsiderable damage; but nothing material, as its fury had been spent at Malta. The number of killed and wounded amounted to near two hundred; and the loss of shipping, &c. was very considerable." -The effects of thunder storms, and the vast quantity of electric matter formed in the clouds which produce these storms, are so well known, that it is superfluous to mention them. It appears, however, that even these clouds are not so highly electrified as to produce their fatal effects on those who are immersed in them. It is only the discharge of part of their electricity upon such bodies as are either not electrified at all, or not so highly electrified as the cloud, that does all the mischief. We have, however, only the following instance on record, of any persons' being immersed in the body of a thunder cloud. Professor Saussure, and young Mr. Jalabert, when travelling over one of the high Alps, were caught among clouds of this kind; and, to their astonishment, found their bodies so full of electrical fire, that spontaneous flashes darted from their fingers with a crackling noise, and the same kind of sensation as when strongly electrified by art. Among the awful phenomena of nature, none have excited more terror than lightning and thunder. Some of the profligate Roman emperors, of whom history records that they procured themselves to be deified, confessed, by their trembling and hiding themselves, when they heard the thunder, that there was a divine power greater than their own-Cæla tonantem Jovem The greatest security against the terrors of a thunder-storm, although no certain one against its effects, is that life of piety and virtue, which is the best guardian of every earthly blessing. The good man, who knows that every event is under the direction of an overruling Providence, and that this life is only a part of his existence, introductory to the blissful scenes of immortality, will behold the terrors of the storm with unshaken resolution: grateful to the Supreme Being, if permitted to escape from the danger; and acquiescing in the Divine Will, if thus to be conveyed, by an easy and instantaneous passage, to that heaven where his conversation had long been, and to that God with whom he delighted to walk.

These sentiments are beautifully expressed in the following lines, written in a midnight thunder-storm, by the celebrated Mrs. Carter, and addressed to a lady :- Let coward guilt with pallid fear To shelt'ring caverns fly, And justly dread the vengeful fate That thunders thro' the sky:

Protected by that hand, whose law The threat'ning storms obey, Intrepid virtue smiles secure, As in the blaze of day.

In the thick cloud's tremendous gloom, The lightning's lurid glare, It views the same All-gracious Pow'r, That breathes the vernal air.

Thro' nature's ever-varying scene, By diffrent ways pursu'd, The one eternal end of Heav'n Is universal good.

The same unchanging mercy rules When flaming ether glows, As when it tunes the linnet's voice Or blushes in the rose.