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at present in a paradisaical state, and possessed of that innocence and moral purity in which he was created. It appears incompatible with the idea of an Almighty Intelligence, possessed of boundless benevolence, that innocent beings should be so frequently subjected to the influence of such dreadful agents, by which they are swept from the living world in a manner so appalling and terrific. Man is, therefore, a

creature who has fallen from his primitive state of integrity; and such fearful agents, and many others, as the volcano and the earthquake, are so many proofs and evidences of the depravity and fallen state of the human race; otherwise they would not be permitted to inhabit a world where so many destructive influences are in operation. An important change appears to have taken place in the constitution of the atmosphere at the period of the universal deluge, which probably may have given rise to many of the physical evils connected with this part of our terrestrial system; which may, in after ages, be in a great measure removed, when the earth shall be cultivated throughout its whole extent, and universal peace and brotherhood prevail among all nations. Notwithstanding, however, the occasional operation of the destructive agents to which we allude, the arrangements connected with our globe, in their prominent bearings, and considered as a whole, evidently display the long-suffering, the tender mercy, and the goodness of Jehovah, and should lead us to humble ourselves in his pre

sence, under a sense of our manifold deviations from the path of his commandments.

The velocity of winds varies, from the gentlest breeze or an imperceptible movement, to a hundred miles an hour. Light airs may be considered as moving at the rate of from one to three miles an hour, or from a foot and a half, to four feet and two-fifths, per second; a breeze, from four to six miles an hour; a brisk gale, from ten to sixteen miles an hour; a fresh gale, from twenty to twenty-five miles; a strong gale, from thirty to thirty-five miles; a hard gale, from forty to forty-five miles; a storm or tempest, fifty miles; a great storm, sixty miles; a hurricane, eighty miles; a violent hurricane, tearing up trees, throwing down houses, etc., moves at the rate of one hundred miles an hour.

Notwithstanding the occasional ravages of winds, they produce many beneficial effects in the system of nature. They serve as ventilators for purifying the atmosphere; they dispel fogs and noxious vapours; they agitate the waters of the ocean, and prevent them from stagnation and putrefaction; in the heat of summer they fan us with gales and gentle breezes. By their mechanical force, windmills and other machinery are set in motion, and ships impelled across seas and oceans to the remotest corners of the globe, to promote commerce, learning, religion, and the mutual intercourse of human beings.

CHAPTER III.

Luminous and fiery meteors.

1. The aurora borealis.-This is one of the most splendid phenomena which appears in the visible sky, especially when its coruscations diffuse themselves over the whole face of the heavens. The appearances of the aurora may be arranged under the following particulars:1. A horizontal light, like the morning twilight or break of day. This light generally appears in the north or north by west, and sometimes seems as if it broke out from a few darkish clouds. 2. Fine, slender, luminous beams, well defined, and of a dense light. These frequently continue a half or a whole minute apparently at rest, but more frequently with a quick lateral motion, that is, from east to west, or the contrary. 3. Flashes pointing upwards, or in the same direction with the beams, which they always succeed. These are only momentary, and have no lateral motion, but they are generally repeated many times in a minute. They appear much broader, more diffuse, and of a weaker light than the beams; they grow gradu- ally fainter till they disappear, and sometimes

continue for several hours, flashing at intervals. Sometimes they are confined chiefly to the northern region of the heavens, and at other times illuminate the whole sky with their fantastic coruscations. Such are some of the general appearances of the aurora borealis, but they are strikingly varied at different times, and it is difficult accurately to describe the shifting and splendid phenomena they present.

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The aurora has been occasionally seen in all ages it is spoken of by Herodotus, Xenophon, Diodorus Siculus, Homer, Virgil, and Ossian, the Highland bard. Aristotle, in his work on meteors, describes it as "an appearance observed by night in calm weather, resembling flame mingled with smoke, or the distant appearance of burning stubble; the predominant colours being purple, bright red, and blood colour." It has been more frequently observed in this country since the year 1716, when, on the 6th of March, it appeared with a splendour which attracted universal attention, and was considered by many as prognostic of wars, famine and pestilence, and a foreign race of princes.

The following is a description of an aurora, as seen by Dr. Dalton:-" Attention was first excited by the remarkably red appearance of the clouds to the south, which afforded sufficient light to read by at eight o'clock in the evening, though there was no moonlight in the north. From half-past nine to ten, P.M., there was a large luminous horizontal arch to

the southward, and one or more concentric arches northward. At half-past ten o'clock, streamers appeared very low in the south-east, running to and fro from west to south; they increased in number, and began to approach the zenith apparently with an accelerated velocity, when all of a sudden the whole hemisphere was covered with them, and exhibited such an appearance as surpasses all description. The intensity of the light, the prodigious number and velocity of the beams, the grand intermixture of all the primitive colours in their utmost splendour, variegating the glowing canopy with the most enchanting scenery, afforded an awful, but, at the same time, pleasing and most sublime spectacle. Every one gazed with astonishment, but the uncommon grandeur of the scene only lasted one minute; the variety of colours disappeared, and the beams were converted into the flashing radiations; but even then it surpassed all other appearances of the aurora; in short, the whole hemisphere was covered with it."

The writer had occasion to witness a splendid and somewhat terrific display of this phenomenon, in the vicinity of Dundee, on the 17th November, 1835. A little before nine o'clock, P.M., the coruscations first began to appear, which, in a short time, diffused all the brightness which appears in a moonlight evening. About ten o'clock, the aurora shone in all its splendour, when coruscations, or streams of light, more than thirty or forty degrees in length, appeared

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