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ATMOSPHERICAL PHENOMENA

METEORS.

From look to look, contagious through the croud,

The panic runs, and into wondrous shapesTii’ appearance throws': armies in meet array,Thronged with aerial spears and steeds of fire;

Till the long lines of full-extended warIn bleeding fight commixt, the sanguine floodRolls a broad slaughter o’er the plains of heaven.

As thus they scan the visionary scene,

On all sides swells the superstitious din,

Incontinent; and busy frenzy talksOf blood and battle ; cities overturned,

And late at night in swallowing earthquake sunk^

Or hideous wrapt in fierce ascending flame;

Of sallow famine, inundation, storm ;

Of pestilence, and every great distress ;

Empires subversed, when ruling fate has struckTh’ unalterable hour : ev'n nature’s selfIs deemed to totter on the brink of time.

Not so the man of philosophic eye,

And inspect sage ; the waving brightness heCurious surveys, inquisitive to knowThe causes, and materials, yet unfixed,

Of this appearance beautiful and new.

Thomson.

nature of these splendid phenomena of the heavens*"^not be so well elucidated as by an extract from thej^vels of M. M. Humboldt and Bonpland to the equinoc-

tial

regions of the New Continent. The sublime wonder*

r^cnbed by the former of these travellers were witnessedy them at Cumana, a city of South America , and capital4e province of that name.

‘ The night of the 11th of November, 1799, was codextremely beautiful. Toward the morning, from halfer two, the most extraordinary luminous meteors weretowards the east. M. Bonpland, who had risen to■jJoy the freshness of the air in the gallery, perceivedfirst. Thousands of bolides, (fire-balls,) and fallingstars,/"deeded each other during four hours. Their direction-^very regular, from north to south.' They filled a space' ttle sky extending from the true east 30° toward the