theory of Stoicism, and lived so abstemious and laborious a life, that he injured his health. It was from his Stoical teachers that he learned so many admirable lessons, to work hard, to deny himself, to avoid listening to slander, to endure misfortunes, never to deviate from his purpose, to be grave without affectation, delicate in correcting others, "not frequently to say to any one, nor to write in a letter, that I have no leisure," nor continually to excuse the neglect of ordinary duties by alleging urgent occupations. Through all his Stoical training, Aurelius preserved the natural sweetness of his nature, so that he emerged from it the most lovable as well as the saintliest of Pagans. Antoninus Pius reigned from 138 to 161 A.D., and the concord between him and his destined heir was so complete, that it is recorded that during these twenty-three years Marcus never slept oftener than twice away from the house of Pius. It is generally believed that Aurelius married Faustina in 146, at all events a daughter was born to him in 147. The two noblest of imperial Romans were associated both in the administration of the state and in the simple country occupations and amusements of the sea-side villa of Lorium, the birthplace of Pius, to which he loved to retire from the pomp and the wretched intrigues of Rome. Antoninus Pius died of fever, 161 A.D., at his villa of Lorium at the age of seventy-five. As his end approached, he summoned his friends and the leading men of Rome to his bedside, and recommended to them Marcus, who was then forty years of age, as his successor, without mentioning the name of Commodus, his other adopted son, commonly called Lucius Verus. It is believed that the senate agreed with what appeared to be the wishes of the dying emperor, and urged Aurelius to take the sole administration of the empire into his hands. But at the very commencement of his reign, Marcus showed the magnanimity of his nature by admitting Verus as his partner in the empire, giving him the tribunitian and proconsular powers, and the titles Cæsar and Augustus. This was the first time that Rome had two emperors as colleagues. Verus proved to be a weak, self-indulgent man; but he had a high respect for his adoptive brother, and deferred uniformly to his judgment. Although apparently illassorted, they lived in peace; and Verus married Lucilla, the daughter of Aurelius. In the first year of his reign Faustina gave birth to twins, one of whom survived to become the infamous Emperor Commodus. The early part of the reign of Aurelius was clouded by various national misfortunes: an inundation of the Tiber swept away a large part of Rome, destroying fields, drowning cattle, and ultionately causing a famine; then came earthquakes, fires, and plagues of insects; and finally, the unruly and warlike Parthians resumed hostilities, and under their king, Vologeses, defeated a Roman army and devastated Syria. Verus, originally a man of considerable physical courage and even mental ability, went to oppose the Parthians, but, having escaped from the control of his colleague in the purple, he gave himself up entirely to sensual excesses, and the Roman cause in Armenia would have been lost, and the empire itself, perhaps, imperilled, had Verus not had under him able generals, the chief of whom was Avidius Cassius. By them the Roman prestige was vindicated, and the Parthian war brought to a conclusion in 165, the two emperors having a triumph for their victory in the year following. Verus and his army brought with them from the East a terrible pestilence, which spread through the whole empire, and added greatly to the horrors of the time. The people of Rome seem to have been completely unnerved by the universal distress, and to have thought that the last days of the empire had come. Nor were their fears without cause. The Parthians had at the best been beaten, not subdued, the Britons threatened revolt, while signs appeared that various tribes beyond the Alps intended to break into Italy. Indeed, the bulk of the reign of Aurelius was spent in efforts to ward off from the empire the attacks of the barbarians. To allay the terrors of the Romans, he went himself to the wars with Verus, his headquarters being Carnuntum on the Danube. Ultimately, the Marcomanni, the fiercest of the tribes that inhabited the country between Illyria and the sources of the Danube, sued for peace in 168. The following year Verus died, having been, it is said, cut off by the pestilence which he had brought from Syria, although in that wicked age there were not wanting gossips malignant enough to say even of Marcus that he hastened his brother's death by poison. Aurelius was thenceforth undisputed master of the Roman empire, during one of the most troubled periods of its history. Mr Farrar, in his Seekers after God, thus admirably describes the manner in which he discharged his multifarious duties :-" He regarded himself as being, in fact, the servant of all. It was his duty, like that of the bull in the herd, or the ram among the flocks, to confront every peril in his own person, to be foremost in all the hardships of war, and most deeply immersed in all the toils of peace. The registry of the citizens, the suppression of litigation, the elevation of public morals, the care of minors, the retrenchment of public expenses, the limitation of gladiatorial games and shows, the care of roads, the restoration of senatorial privileges, the appointment of none but worthy magistrates, even the regulation of street traffic, these and numberless other duties so completely absorbed his attention, that, in spite of indifferent health, they often kept him at severe labour from early morning till long after midnight. His position, indeed, often necessitated his presence at games and shows, but on these occasions he occupied himself either in reading, in being read to, or in writing notes. He was one of those who held that nothing should be done hastily, and that few crimes were worse than the waste of time." Peace was not long allowed the emperor. The year after the death of his partner, two of the German tribes, the Quadi and the Marcomanni, renewed hostilities with Rome, and, for three years, Aurelius resided almost constantly at Carnuntum, that he might effectually watch them. In the end, the Marcomanni were driven out of Pannonia, and were almost destroyed in their retreat across the Danube. In 174 Aurelius gained a decisive victory over the Quadi, to which a superstitious interest is attached, and which is commemorated by one of the sculptures on the Column of Antonine. The story is that the Roman army had been entangled in a defile, from which they were unable to extricate themselves, while at the same time they suffered intensely from thirst. In this extremity a sudden storm gave them abundance of rain, while the hail and thunder which accompanied the rain confounded their enemies, and enabled the Romans to gain an easy and complete victory. This triumph was universally considered at the time, and for long afterwards, to have been a miracle, and bore the title of "The Miracle of the Thundering Legion." The Gentile writers of the period ascribed the victory to their gods, while the Christians attributed it to the prayers of their brethren in a legion to which, they affirmed, the emperor then gave the name of Thundering. Dacier, however, and others who adhere to the Christian view of the miracle, admit that the appellation of Thundering or Lightning (κepavvoẞóλos, or kepavvopópos) was not given to the legion because the Quadi were struck with lightning, but because there was a figure of lightning on their shields. It has also been virtually proved that it had the title even in the reign of | to the effect that not only were there severe persecutions Augustus. coe. of Christians, in which men like Polycarp and Justin Even after this Aurelius was not allowed to rest. From perished, but that the foundation of these persecutions Rome, to which he had returned, he marched to Germany was certain rescripts or constitutions issued by Aurelius as to carry on the war against the tribes which harassed supplementary to the milder decrees of his predecessors the empire. There the alarming news reached him that Hadrian and Antoninus Pius. In explanation, however, if Avidius Cassius, the brave and experienced commander not in extenuation, of the attitude of Aurelius towards of the Roman troops in Asia, had revolted and proclaimed Christianity, several circumstances should be taken into himself emperor. But the rebellion did not last long. consideration. In the first place, it is evident that he knew Cassius had only enjoyed his self-conferred honour for little of the Christians, and absolutely nothing of Christian three months, when he was assassinated, and his head was ethics. In his Meditations he makes only one reference brought to Marcus. With characteristic magnanimity, | (xi. 3) to the adherents of the new creed, and that of the Marcus did not thank the assassins for what they had most contemptuous character, showing that he confounded done; on the contrary, he begged the senate to pardon them all with certain fanatics of their number, whom even all the family of Cassius, and to allow his life to be the Clemens of Alexandria compares, on account of their thirst only one forfeited on account of the civil war. This was for martyrdom, to the Indian gymnosophists. How far agreed to, and it must be considered as a proof of the this ignorance was culpable it is impossible at so remote wisdom of Aurelius's clemency, that he had little or no a date to say. Further, it should be noted, in regard to the trouble in pacifying the provinces which had been the scene rescripts upon which the persecutions were founded, that, of rebellion. He treated them all with forbearance, and it although they were in the name of the emperor, they may is said that when he arrived in Syria, and the correspond- not have proceeded directly from him. There is no evidence ence of Cassius was brought him, he burnt it without that he was an active persecutor, except a passage in Orosius reading it. During this journey of pacification his wife to the effect that there were persecutions of the Christians Faustina, who had borne him eleven children, died. The in Asia and Gallia "under the orders of Marcus;" and it gossiping historians of the time, particularly Dion Cassius should not be kept out of consideration that he was to and Capitolinus, charge Faustina with the most shameless some extent a constitutional monarch, and had to pay infidelity to her husband, who is even blamed for not deference both to the consulta of the senate and the prepaying heed to her crimes. But none of these stories rest cedents of previous emperors. At the time there was a great on evidence which can fairly be considered trustworthy; popular outery against the Christians on social and political, while, on the other hand, there can be no doubt whatever even more than on religious, grounds; and Aurelius may that Aurelius loved his wife tenderly, and trusted her im- have been as much at the mercy of intriguers or fanatics plicitly while she lived, and mourned deeply for her loss. when he gave his sanction to the butcheries of Christians It would seem that Aurelius, after the death of Faustina in Asia Minor, as William III. was at the mercy of Stair and the pacification of Syria, proceeded, on his return to and Breadalbane, the real authors of the massacre of GlenItaly, through Athens, and was initiated in the Eleusinian Finally, it should be borne in mind that, in the reign mysteries, the reason assigned for his doing so being, that of Aurelius, the Christians had assumed a much bolder it was his custom to conform to the established rites of attitude than they had hitherto done. Not only had they any country in which he happened to find himself. Along caused first interest and then alarm by the rapid increase with his son Commodus he entered Rome in 176, and of their numbers, but, not content with a bare toleration in obtained a triumph for victories in Germany. In 177 the empire, they declared war against all heathen rites, occurred that persecution of Christians, the share of and, at least indirectly, against the Government which perAurelius in which has caused great difference of opinion, mitted them to exist. In the eyes of Aurelius they were and during which Attalus and others were put to death. atheists and foes of that social order which he considered Meanwhile the war on the German frontier continued, and it the first of a citizen's duties to maintain, and it is quite the hostile tribes were defeated as on former occasions. In possible that, although the most amiable of men and of this campaign Aurelius led his own forces; and, probably rulers, he may have conceived it to be his duty to sanction on that account, he was attacked by some infectious disease, measures for the extermination of such wretches. Still his which ultimately cut him off, after a short illness, accord- action at the time must be considered, as John Stuart Mill ing to one account, in his camp at Sirmium (Mitrovitz) on puts it, as one of the most tragical facts in all history." the Save, in Lower Pannonia, and, according to another, The book which contains the philosophy of Aurelius is at Vindobona (Vienna), on the 17th March 180 A.D., in known by the title of his Reflections, or his Meditations, the fifty-ninth year of his age. His ashes (according to although that is not the name which he gave to it himsome authorities, his body) were taken to Rome, and he self, and of the genuineness of the authorship no doubts was deified. Those who could afford the cost obtained his are now entertained. It is believed that the emperor also statue or bust, and, for a long time, statues of him held a wrote an autobiography, which has perished with other place among the Penates of the Romans. Commodus, who treasures of antiquity. The Meditations were written, was with his father when he died, erected to his memory it is evident, as occasion offered,-in the midst of public the Antonine Column (now in the Piazza Colonna at Rome), business, and even on the eve of battles on which the fate round the shaft of which are sculptures in relief com- of the empire depended,-hence their fragmentary appearmemorating the miracle of the Thundering Legion and ance, but hence also much of their practical value and even the various victories of Aurelius over the Quadi and the of their charm. It is believed by many critics that they Marcomanni. were intended for the guidance in life of Aurelius's son, Commodus. If so, history records how lamentably they failed in accomplishing their immediate effect, for Commodus proved one of the greatest sensualists, buffoons, and tyrants that disgraced even the Roman purple. they have been considered as one of the most precious of the legacies of antiquity,-as, in fact, the best of noninspired reflections on practical morality. They have been recognised as among the most effectual stimuli to strugglers The one blemish in the life of Aurelius is his hostility to Christianity, which is the more remarkable that his morality comes nearer than any other heathen system to that of the New Testament. Attempts have been made to show that he was not responsible for the atrocities with which his reign is credited, but the evidence of Justin, of Athenagoras, of Apollinaris, and above all, of Melito, bishop of Sardis, and of the Church of Smyrna, is overwhelmingly But in life, of whatever class and in whatever position, in the field of speculation as in that of action. The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius were, with Machiavelli's Art of War, the daily study of Captain John Smith, the real founder of the United States. They are placed by Mr Mill in his posthumous essay on the Utility of Religion as almost equal in ethical elevation to the Sermon on the Mount. Aurelius early embraced, and throughout life adhered to, the Stoical philosophy, probably because he considered it as the sternest and most solid system to oppose to the corruption of his time. But, as Tenneman says, he imparted to it "a character of gentleness and benevolence, by making it subordinate to a love of mankind, allied to religion." In the Meditations it is difficult to discover anything like a systematic philosophy, which, indeed, means, as he used the word, tranquillity, or a serene habit of mind. From the manner, however, in which he seeks to distinguish between matter (vλn) and cause or reason (airía, λóyos), and from the Carlylean earnestness with which he advises men to examine all the impressions on their minds (pavraσía), it may be inferred that he held the view of Anaxagoras-that God and matter exist independently, but that God governs matter. There can be no doubt that Aurelius believed in a deity, although Schultz is probably right in maintaining that all his theology amounts to this, the soul of man is most intimately united to his body, and together they make one animal which we call man; and so the deity is most intimately united to the world or the material universe, and together they form one whole. We find in the Meditations no speculations on the absolute nature of the deity, and no clear expressions of opinion as to a future state. We may also observe here that, like Epictetus, he is by no means so decided on the subject of suicide as the older Stoics. Aurelius is, above all things, a practical moralist. The goal in life to be aimed at, according to him, is not happiness, but tranquillity, or equanimity. This condition of mind can be attained only by "living conformably to nature," that is to say, one's whole nature, and as a means to that, man must cultivate the four chief virtues, each of which has its distinct sphere-wisdom, or the knowledge of good and evil; justice, or the giving to every man his due; fortitude, or the enduring of labour and pain; and temperance, or moderation in all things. It is no "fugitive and cloistered virtue" that Aurelius seeks to encourage; on the contrary, man must lead the life of the social animal," must "live as on a mountain;" and "he is an abscess on the universe who withdraws and separates himself from the reason of our common nature through being displeased with the things which happen." While the prime principle in man is the social, "the next in order is not to yield to the persuasions of the body, when they are not conformable to the rational principle which must govern." This " divinity within a man," this "legislating faculty" (rò yeμovikóv) which, looked at from one point of view, is conscience, and from another is reason, must be implicitly obeyed. He who thus obeys it will attain tranquillity of mind; nothing can irritate him, for everything is according to nature, and death itself "is such as generation is, a mystery of nature, a composition out of the same elements, and a decomposition into the same, and altogether not a thing of which any man should be ashamed, for it is not contrary to the nature of a reasonable animal, and not contrary to the reason of our constitution.” 56 The morality of Marcus Aurelius cannot be said to have been new when it was given to the world, far less can it be said to be systematic. Compared, indeed, with elaborate treatises on ethics, the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius are as tonic medicine to succulent food. The charm of his morality lies in its exquisite accent and its infinite tenderness. Where can the connoisseur in morals find anything finer than such sentences as this?" The pride which is proud of its want of pride is the most intolerable of all;" or where can a more delicate rebuke to the Pharisaism which lurks in the breast of every man be obtained than this?" One man, when he has done a service to another, is ready to set it down to his account as a favour conferred. Another is not ready to do this, but still, in his own mind, he thinks of the man as his debtor, and he knows what he has done. A third in a manner does not even know what he has done, but he is like a vine which has produced grapes, and seeks for nothing more after it has once produced its proper fruit. So a man when he has done a good act, does not call out for others to come and see, but he goes on to another act as a vine goes on to produce again the grapes in season." But above all, what gives the sentences of Marcus Aurelius their enduring value and fascination, what renders them superior to the utterances of other moralists of the same school, such as Epictetus and Seneca, is that they are the gospel of his life. His practice was in accordance with his precepts, or rather his precepts are simply the records of his practice. To the saintliness of the cloister he added the wisdom of the man of the world; constant in misfortune, not elated by prosperity, never "carrying things to the sweating point;" preserving, in a time of universal corruption, unreality, and self-indulgence, a nature sweet, pure, self-denying, unaffected, Marcus Aurelius has given to the world one of the finest examples of the possibilities of humanity. The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius have been translated into English, German, French, Spanish, and Italian. The two chief English translations are those of Jeremy Collier (1702) and of George Long; the last may be considered final. The text most commonly used is the Greek one edited by J. M. Schultz (republished by Tauchnitz in 1821). Many books have been written on the life and times of Aurelius, and the essays on his Meditations are innumerable. One of the best estimates of him is contained in Mr F. W. Farrar's Seekers after God, 1868. A scholarly work issued in 1874 by M. Gaston Boissin, entitled La Religion Romaine d'Auguste aux Antonines, gives, perhaps, the most interesting existing account of the state of society under the Antonines. The AUREOLA, AUREOLE, the radiance or luminous cloud which, in paintings of sacred personages, is represented as surrounding the whole figure. In the earliest periods of Christian art this splendour was confined to the figures of the persons of the Godhead, but it was afterwards extended to the Virgin Mary and to several of the saints. aureola, when enveloping the whole body, is generally oval or elliptical in form, but is occasionally circular or quatrefoil. When it is merely a luminous disk round the head, it is called specifically a nimbus, while the combination of nimbus and aureole is called a glory. The strict distinction between nimbus and aureole is not commonly maintained, and the latter term is most frequently used to denote the radiance round the heads of saints, angels, or persons of the Godhead. AURICH, a town of Prussia, in the province of Hanover, situated on the Trecktief canal. It is regularly built; possesses a castle, which was formerly the residence of the prince of East Friesland, a lyceum, and four libraries; and carries on the manufacture of leather, paper, pottery, and tobacco. The famous meeting-place of the East Frieslanders, Upstaalsboom, is in the neighbourhood. Population, 4264. AURIFABER (the Latinised form of the name GOLDSCHMIDT), JOANNES, a Lutheran divine, celebrated as the III. 12 friend of Luther and as one of the editors of his works, was born in 1519 in the county of Mansfeldt, or, more probably, in the town of Weimar. After completing his education at the university of Wittenberg, where he heard the lectures of Luther, he became tutor to Count Mansfeldt, und in the war of 1544-5 accompanied the army as field-preacher. For some months afterwards he resided with Luther as his famulus or private secretary, and was present at his death in 1546. In the following year he spent six months in prison along with John Frederick, elector of Saxony, who had been captured by the emperor, Charles V. He held for some years the office of court-preacher at Weimar, but, owing to theological disputes, was compelled to resign this office in 1561. In 1566 he was appointed to the Lutheran church at Erfurt, which post he held, though not without serious differences with his fellowclergymen, till his death in 1575. Besides taking a share in the first collected or Jena edition of Luther's works, Aurifaber sought out and published at Eisleben in 1564-5 several writings not included in that edition. He also published Luther's Letters (1556, 1565), and Table Talk (1566). ing some religious disputes in the town of Lübeck. The Grand-duke Albert of Prussia, who was very desirous of healing the differences in the Prussian Church caused by the discussion of Osiander's doctrines, was attracted by | Aurifaber, invited him to Königsberg in 1553, and in the following year appointed him to the professorship of divinity in that university, and to the presidency of the Samland diocese. Aurifaber, however, found it impossible to conciliate all parties, and in 1565 returned to Breslau, where, for the three remaining years of his life, he discharged the joint offices of pastor in the church of St Elizabeth and director of the Lutheran Church and schools. He died 19th October 1568. AURILLAC, the capital of the department of Cantal, France, situated on the right bank of the Jourdanne, which is here crossed by a handsome bridge. It contains tribunals of primary instance and commerce, a communal college, societies of agriculture, arts, and commerce, a public library, and a museum. Most of the town is of comparatively modern construction, its more ancient buildings having suffered severely in the religious wars of the 16th century. Of highest claims to antiquity are portions of the castle of St Etienne, the church of St Géraud, and a Benedictine abbey, which is regarded by many as the original nucleus round which Aurillac gathered. There is a statue of Sylvester II., who was a native of the town, and was educated in the abbey, which soon afterwards became one of the most famous schools of France. The manufactures consist of tapestry, lace, cutlery, paper, leather, &c., and a considerable number of horses are bred. Population in 1872, 11,098. AURIFABER, JOANNES, a Lutheran divine, born at Breslau in 1517. He was educated at Wittenberg, and was there specially attracted to Melanchthon, with whom he ever afterwards remained on terms of close friendship. After graduating in 1538 he spent twelve years as docent at the university, and having then received his doctorate of divinity, was appointed professor of divinity and pastor of the church of St Nicholas at Rostock. He distinguished himself by his prudence and conciliatory disposition, took a leading part in the composition of the regulations AURORA, the Roman personification of the dawn of for the Mecklenburg Church, and was successful in allay-day, corresponding to the Greek goddess Eos (q.v.) AURORA POLARIS URORA POLARIS, AURORA BOREALIS and AUSTRALIS, A POLAR LIGHT, NORTHERN LIGHTS, OF STREAMERS, "Fierce fiery warriors fight upon the clouds In ranks, and squadrons, and right form of war." trabes, according to their forms and colours. In Shetland, where they are very frequent, and in the north of Scotland, they are known as the "merry dancers" (perhaps the ancient capra saltantes); while, from a curious passage in Sirr's Ceylon and the Cingalese, vol. ii. p. 117, it seems that the aurora, or something like it, is occasionally visible in Ceylon, and that the natives call it the Buddha lights. Mr Jansen says, however, that the great aurora of 4th February 1872, which was seen at Bombay, was not visible in Ceylon. In many parts of Ireland a scarlet aurora is supposed to be a shower of blood, and under this name is not unfrequently mentioned in the old annals, always in connection with some battle or the murder of a great chief. The earliest mentioned was in 688, in the Annals of Cloon-mac-noise, after a battle between Leinster and Munster, in which Foylcher O'Moyloyer was slain. It was observed at Edessa in 502, and in Syria in 1097, 1098, and 1117. an electrical meteor, appearing most frequently in high lati-They were called by the ancients chasmata, bolides, and tudes, in the form of luminous clouds, arches, and rays, of which the latter sometimes meet at a point near the zenith, and form what is called a boreal crown. The arches are sometimes single; sometimes several concentric ones are seen, and they are usually nearly stationary, or move slowly southward. They cross the magnetic meridian at right angles, and, therefore, in England, have their centres nearly N.N.W. The rays rise perpendicularly from the arches, but are sometimes seen detached, or when the arch is below the horizon. They are parallel to the dipping needle, or, in other words, to the curves of magnetic force; and the boreal crown, at which they appear to meet, is merely an effect of perspective. This point is in England about 70° in altitude, and nearly S.S.E. of the zenith. The rays are seldom stationary, but appear and disappear suddenly, shooting with great velocity up to the zenith, and moving slowly eastward or westward, but most commonly the latter. They sometimes cover the whole sky, and frequently have a strong tremulous motion from end to end. This tremulous motion is sometimes seen also in the arches when near the zenith; and Benjamin V. Marsh mentions a case in which the matter of the arch had the appearance of a rapid torrent flowing from east to west. A rare form of aurora is that in which the rays appear to hang from the sky like fringes or the folds of a mantle. The ordinary colour of the aurora is a pale greenish-yellow, but crimson, violet, and steel-colour are not uncommon. Crimson auroras have often been imagined by the superstitious to be omens of war, pestilence, and famine; and lively imaginations have seen in their motions The only thing resembling a distinct history of this History phenomenon is that which has been given by Dr Halley, in the Philosophical Transactions, No. 347. The first account he gives, taken from a book entitled A Description of Meteors, by W. F., D.D., reprinted at London in 1654, describes the appearance of what is called by him burning spears, which were seen at London on the 30th January 1560. The next appearance, according to the testimony of Stow, was on the 7th October 1564. In 1574 also, according to Camden and Stow, an aurora borealis was observed two nights successively, viz., on the 14th and 15th of November, having much the same appearances as that described by Dr Halley in 1716. Again, an aurora unds m ora. aylight rora. was twice seen in Brabant, in the year 1575, viz., on the 13th of February and 28th of September. Both appearances were described by Cornelius Gemm, professor of medicine at Louvain, who compares them to spears, fortified cities, and armies fighting in the air. Michael Mæstlin, tutor to Kepler, states that at Backnang in Würtemberg these phenomena, which he styles chasmata, were seen by himself no less than seven times in 1580. In 1581 they again appeared in great splendour in April and September, and in a less degree in some other months of the same year. In September 1621, a similar phenomenon was observed all over France, and described by Gassendi, who gave it the name of aurora borealis; yet neither this, nor any similar appearance posterior to 1574, is described by English writers till the year 1707. From 1621 to 1707, indeed, there is no mention made of an aurora borealis having been seen at all; and, considering the number of astronomers who during that period were continually scanning the heavens, it might almost be supposed that nothing of the kind really made its appearance until after an interval of eighty-six years. A small one was seen in November 1707; and during that and the following year the same appearances were repeated five times. The next on record is that mentioned by Dr Halley in March 1716, which from its brilliancy attracted universal attention, and was considered by the common people as marking the introduction of a foreign race of princes. Since that time these meteors have been much more frequent, and most of our readers must have seen the brilliant displays within the last few years which have been visible over the whole of Europe. One singular phenomenon which seems to be connected with the aurora is that of a dark bank of cloud below the arches, and usually just above the northern horizon. Although this appears decidedly darker than the uncovered portion of the sky, it is of so thin a character that stars can be seen through it, as well as through the auroral arches and rays, with but little diminution of brightness. It is, however, quite possible that this cloud is only the somewhat misty open sky near the horizon, which appears darker by contrast with the bright arch above it. It has been repeatedly affirmed that cracking, hissing, or whizzing sounds have been heard proceeding from the polar lights, and the natives of high latitudes are almost unanimous in alleging that this is sometimes the case. Scoresby, Richardson, Franklin, Parry, Hood, and later observers seem to have listened in vain for such noises, and it seems that in the intense cold of the Arctic night the contraction of the ice, or its cleavage under the pressure of approaching tempests, produces sounds exactly such as are described. Still, mere negative evidence must be received with caution, and it is very possible that in high latitudes such sounds may occasionally be heard, since the electric discharge seems to originate near the poles. The aurora, too, seems to vary greatly in height, and in lower latitudes is usually at such an altitude that audible sounds from it are quite impossible. Musschenbroeck says that the Greenland fishers in his time assured him that they had frequently heard noises proceeding from the aurora borealis, and his testimony is confirmed by that of many others. There is no a priori improbability of such sounds being occasionally heard, since a somewhat similar phenomenon accompanies the brush discharge of the electric machine, to which the aurora bears considerable resemblance. Numerous observers (Nature, iv. 27, 47) have attested the occasional visibility of aurora by daylight. In the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, 1788, Dr H. Ussher notices that aurora makes the stars "flutter" very much in the telescope, and states that, having noticed this effect strongly one day at 11 A.M., he examined the sky, and These clouds. saw an auroral corona with rays to the horizon. J. Glaisher, Franklin, and others, have also observed the phenomenon. It is scarcely possible that a light so faint as not even to obscure the stars should be visible in sunlight, and such facts would seem to suggest that the auroral light is developed in cloud or mist of some sort, which may become Connection visible by reflected light, as well as by its own. Franklin of aurora says, "Upon one occasion the aurora was seen immediately with after sunset, while bright daylight was still remaining. Å circumstance to which I attach some importance must not be omitted. Clouds have sometimes been observed during the day to assume the forms of aurora, and I am inclined to connect with these clouds the deviation of the needle, which was occasionally remarked at such times." The writer has seen aurora which could not be distinguished from clouds, till the further development of the display made their real nature evident. Dr Richardson thinks he has observed a polarity in the masses of cloud belonging to a certain kind of cirro-stratus approaching to cirrus, by which their long diameters, having all the same direction, were made to cross the magnetic meridian nearly at right angles. But the apparent convergence of such masses of cloud towards the opposite points of the horizon, which have been so frequently noticed by meteorologists, is an optical deception, produced when they are situated in a plane parallel to that on which the observer stands. circumstances, says Dr Richardson, are here noticed, because if it shall hereafter be proved that the aurora depends upon the existence of certain clouds, its apparent polarity may, perhaps, with more propriety, be ascribed to the clouds themselves which emit the light; or, in other words, the clouds may assume their peculiar arrangement through the operation of one cause (magnetism, for example), while the emission of light may be produced by another, namely, a change in their internal constitution, perhaps connected with a motion of the electrical fluid. D. Low (Nat., iv. 121) states that he has witnessed as complete a display of auroral motions in the cirrus cloud as he ever beheld in a midnight sky. He thinks that all clouds are subject to magnetic or diamagnetic polarisation, and states that when the lines converge towards the magnetic pole, fine weather follows; when they are at right angles to this position, wet and stormy. The aurora appears in these latitudes usually to occur at a height much greater than that of ordinary clouds. Dr Richardson's observations (Franklin and Richardson's Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea) seem to show, however, that, in the Arctic regions, the aurora is occasionally seated in a region of the atmosphere below a kind of cloud which is known to possess no great altitude, namely, that modi. fication of cirro-stratus which, descending low in the atmosphere, produces a hazy sheet of cloud over head, or a fogbank in the horizon. Indeed, Dr Richardson is inclined to infer that the aurora borealis is constantly accompanied by, or immediately precedes, the formation of one or other of the forms of cirro-stratus. On the 13th of November and 18th December 1826, at Fort Enterprise, its connection with a cloud intermediate between cirrus and cirrostratus is mentioned; but the most vivid coruscations of the aurora were observed when there were only a few thin attenuated shoots of cirro-stratus floating in the air, or when that cloud was so rare that its existence was only known by the production of a halo round the moon. natives of the Arctic regions of North America pretend to foretell wind by the rapidity of the motions of the aurora; and they say that when it spreads over the sky in a uniform sheet of light, it is followed by fine weather, and that the changes thus indicated are more or less speedy, according as the appearance of the meteor is early or late in the evening,—an opinion not improbable, when it is recollected The |