the Obje&ion brought, if the Strength of Arms did not carry all, bow comes Lewis the Tyrant to be fo great a Conqueror? We might eafily answer, Not by the Strength of Arms, it being notorious enough that he never fairly won a Victory, tho' he has bafely bought many. But to come yet clofer, let the Objector at least be fo modeft to ftay till he fees his End; Per. fons of his Character having oftentimes been fuffered to rife fo high, only in order to a greater Fall. After all, if that does not answer Expectation, and God's Providence fhou'd not seem fufficiently vindicated in this, and fome other Inftances in this World, let him but ftay till the other, and there we dare promise him entire Satisfaction. Q. Why Sea-Water is Salt, and yet Spring-Water which comes from it is sweet z by an Experiment commonly made by the Sea-fide. Dig a hole on the Sea-fhore, near the Water, and if the Ground be fandy or clofe, the Water you find there fhall be sweet and potable; but if Rocky or more open, the Water fhall come up Brackish, or perfectly Salt, the Paffages not being ft ait or fine enough to drain away its Sale from it. Q. What's the Reason that it generally Thunders more terribly at Night than at Day. A. If the Query had been, What's the Reason that Thunder feems more terrible, &c. the Sup pofition would have been lefs queftionable, and the Caufe thereof eafily accounted for. In the dead of Night, tho' 'tis for none but Heroes to have a horrid Silence invade their Ears, 'tis common enough for other People to have horrid Noifes do fo, which are render'd more di A. The first part of the Que- ftinct, and confequently more ftion has already been anfwer'd. Terrible, by the univerfal ftillIt proceeds, as few now doubt, nefs every where else. Thus it from that vaft Quantity, and may be with Thunder when it thofe huge Rocks of Salt, which happens in the Night, which are in many Places at the bot being accompany'd with Lighttom of the Sea, or the border, ning, and the Element other. ing Shores and Mountains. For wife very dark by the Thunderthe latter part, How Spring-wa- Clouds, muft fiill ftrike a greater ter, which comes from this Salt, is Horror into all fenfible CreaSweet? Tis by Percolation, or a tures than it wou'd at Day fort of ftraining, which it un-time, when Difcourfe, the Light, dergoes in its Paffage thro' the and various Objects take off the Earth, which gave occafion to Mind from ruminating fo deepfet on foot that profitable In-ly, and attending so diftinaly vention of changing Salt-water on what fills it with fo much into Frefb immediately, when Concern. there fhou'd be occafion for't, as in long Voyages, contrary Winds, &c. at Sea. This is prov'd almost to Demonftration, But befides this accidenta Reason, we know not but there may be a natural one given, fince upon the Obfervations we have made upon great Thun- only produce Beings, but fortiders, they have in our Judgment fies them against the Affault of been really, and in the mlelves, their Contraries, both in Vefor the most part, more loud and getative and Animal Beings, and terrible by Night than by Day, alfo in inanimate Bodies, which the reafon whereof we conceive ftand upon the Defensive, when to be this-That by Day the at- they are fet upon by External tractive Virtue of the Sun gene- Agents, whofe contrary Qualirally draws the Thunder-Clouds ties coming to engage againft higher than by Night, when them, they redouble their Forbeing freed from any fuch ar- ces, and rally all together as it traction, they fall down nearer were into a Body, the better to the Earth, where difcharging receive their Charge, And this themselves of their Load, they is that which Philofophers call muft by as neceflary a Confe- Antiperiftafis, and every Body quence make a proportionably may fee its Effects, when Wagreater Noife, as the discharge ter and Fire are put together, of a Cannon does in the fame or Lyme and Water, or other Circumstances, which if you are unfriendly Oppofites. Thus, as near the place where they are we faid before, these sort of fired, makes you deaf with the Exhalations being of a hot and infupportable found; but if at dry Nature, when they are enfome diftance, it dies away like clofed by an extraordinary Cold, imperfect Thunder. ftrive to defend themselves; buc being too weak, are caft down with fuch a Violence: But fince the Nature of their Force and Violence is requir'd in the Queftion, we fhall give a very late true Inftance of an Acci dent in Northamptonshire: fix teen Perfons in a ftorm retir'd under a great Afh-tree, where having fat down, one of 'em took a little Dog upon his Lap, and held by both the Ears, another took a South-Box out of his Pocket, and laid fome Snufh upon his Hand in order to take it, when immediately a Terri Q Gentlemen, let me trouble your Society to give me your Thoughts upon the force of Thunder, Lightning, Earthquakes and Eclipses? A. Lightning and Thunder may go together, fince they are the Effects of one Caufe, viz, Your Unctuous Bituminous fort of Vapours are exhal'd as other Vapours are, and mounting as high as the middle Region of the Air, they are encompass'd on all fides by the extream coldnefs of that Air which enclofes them, and in order to their Confervation, reunite and take fire by Antiperiftafis, where ftri-ble Clap of Thunder, with a ving to get out by their motion Thunder-bolt, fell into the in the Air, they make that midft of the Afh tree under Rumbling Noife we call Thun- which they fat, clove it into der. But because every Perfon four Pieces, killed four of 'em don't understand what we mean dead, and wounded ten more, by an Antiperiftafis, we fhall that is fear'd they'll not retell 'em, That Nature does not cover, and two only efcap'd Cand the fubtil Fire, (coming along with the Bolt,) whofe Motion being fo violent and swift, it and which is wonderful) in the middle of the reft; the Perfon that was taking Snufh held his Hand to his Nofe with-had not time to move the Boout letting it fall after he was dies; and being fo very fine, it dead, fitting jutt in the fame penetrated 'em without tearing pofture as when alive; the o or mangling 'em into Pieces; ther Perfon with a little Dog, which Fire also must be the held the Dog in the fame po- occafion of the immediate ftifffture as if he had been alive, thening of their dead Bodies, for Dog alfo was dead. I have Nature was fo violently fhock'd read of a parallel Inftance in aby that unnatural Force, that its Church, where about thirty fix frame and manner of acting was (as I take it) were kill'd with altogether inverted, and the Juch another Clap of Thunder, Natural Heat so chang'd, and and every Perfon that was dead overcome by that unnatural Fire, fat as if he had been alive. that the ufual Office of cooling That they were kill'd is no by degrees into a ftifinels was wonder, but that they but that they were extirpated and fupplanted by a kill'd to be fo foon ftiff, as not new Method of acting, proto fall an Arm, or bow their duc'd by the fpirituous fulphuHeads, is very amazing; but reous Fire that took poffefsion to avoid being ask'd the Reafon of the Bodies. in another Oracle, we'll give our Thoughts upon it here. That the fpirits of Sulphur are incredibly ftrong, we need no other Inftances than the Effects of Gunpowder, and that they are a chief Ingredient in the matter of Thunder, is evident by the intollerable fmell of Sulphur where the Thunder bolt falls, and that the fwift-Earth than the Moon, which nefs of a Thing moving, differs is alio of a more Opake and from the Nature of leifurely Dark Body than the Sun; Motions; we fhall alfo give therefore whenever the Moon you one Inftance, which we intercepts or comes betwixt us know to be Matter of Fact and the Sun in a right Line, fo Take an Apple, fet it upon a much of the Sun's Body as is Poft, difcharge a Piece with intercepted by the Moon, is E fmall fhot at it, and tho it be clips d. fhot thro with five or fix Pellets (as has been try'd) yer the Apple is not mov'd it felt. Now thefe dead Perfons hav ing nothing to be feen upon 'em, and yet kill'd, it must be by As to the Nature of Earthquakes, we have faid fomething of it elsewhere. See Vol. 1. of our Athenian Oracle. Eclipfes, as they are two, fo they have two different Causes: We'll begin with that of the Sun; which is thus effected: The Sun is in a higher Orb or Sphare, more diftant from the As to the E clipfe of the Moon, 'tis chus, The Moon receives it Light by Reflection, or borrowing from the Sun; now whenever the Globe of the Earth happens to intercept betwixt the Moon and Sun Sun all in a right Line, fo much | Natural Sympathy. Q. How a piece of Iron laid upon a Cask prevents Thunder, or the Noife-Drum from marving the Liquor contain'd? The fe cond affirm'd, the Effect was wrought by an attractive and retentive Vertue: To prove which he offer'd, that there's but one humid Matter which that Central Fire forces from the deepeft part of the Earth, out of which Matter not only Metals and Minerals are produc'd, but Thunder and Meteors. Now (fays he) the Air being impregnated with noisome Terreftrial Vapours, which are of the fame nature as Iron, when they meet with a piece of it laid upon a Veffel, they make a stop, and the Iron by a Sympathetick attractive Ver tentive retains 'em. Some of the reft were of this Opinion, and others attributed it to fome Q. How is it to be understood, that the Spirit of God moved upon the Face of the Waters, according to that of Gen. cap. 1. verf. 2? A. The Original is Metaphorical, and fignifies the act of the Hen upon her Eggs, vix. a hovering or hatching, as much as to fay, as the Providence of God Almighty does now im mediately fuperintend over all things that are created: So the Spirit of God did at firft immediately hover, hatch, pro-tue receives em, and by its reduce and give a Being to all things out of the heap of firft Matter, reprefented to us under the Idea of a dark Terra-hidden occult Quality, they queous Confufion. know not what.. Our Opinion is, that they are all in an Error about the Caufe, for 'tis not the Noifome Nature of Thunder, but the Noife that A. The Virtuofi of France had fowrs VVine. This appears by a Queftion much of this Nature an Alteration of the Cause addifcufs'd in one of their Con- ing, the Medium whereby it ferences, but 'twas confin'd on- acts, and the Subje& upon which ly to Thunder, and a Cask of it acts; as for the Caufe, ShootWine. We fhall give you a fhorting, Drums, or any other great Specimen of their Thoughts up- Noife, has the fame Effect: So on it, to which we fhall add Steel, Brafs, Silver, Lead, Coal, our own. The first of 'em had or any other heavy Matter laid recourse to the heavenly Influ- upon the Cask, prevents the Efences, and faid that Mars (by feet; alfo not only Wine, but which Planet Iron is defign'd) Mead, Syder, Beer and Ale, and had its House in Aries, and the other Liquors, will be spoil'd by Sun entring that House, causes a great Noife; from which it the moisture of the Vine to appears, That 'tis no Cœleftial afcend, and fo concludes that Influence, no Sympathy, nor othere is a Correspondence be- ther occult Caufe, that produ twixt Wine and Iron, and that ces the above-mentioned Effec. one preferves the other by a But the Queftion is not yet re folv'd, folv'd, but recurs ziz. How good for nothing. Improvements upon this Subject would be very useful against the spoiling of Liquors, Fruits, Roots, &c. in all forts of Weather; but the Practice of thefe Things is noc fo much our bufinels, as the Theory and Reason how fuch and fuch Caufes produce fuch Effects. Q. As I was returning from the last Siege of Limerick, I Jaw in a Ditch the Carcass of a Man kill'd, when our Cir riages were fur prized at Cullin, the Carcass was almost devoured with Lice, which I obferved to be of an extraordi nary bigness. From bence 1 wou'd defire your Thoughts. Whether the Carcass of a Man be devour'd in the Grave by Vermin, or by Worms, cording to the common Notion? ac A. There's no difference at all betwixt Vermin and Worms, (ftri&ly fpeaking) for they are both one, Vermin coming from the Word Vermis, which figni fies a Worm: So that the defign of the Queftion, is, Whe ther Worms or Lice devour People in the Grave? To which we answer, Neither, com monly: Indeed, there is a Dif cafe incident to fome Perfons, call'd the Lowfie Disease, Lice breeding in their Bodies whilft they, are alive, eating holes under the Skin to the bigness of a Walnut, or more, and the Skin not broke; but this Disease is moft commonly in Camps, and was (as we are credibly inform'd) very rief in the late K. James's Camp in Ireland; and 'tis more than barely probable the 1 |