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Show Palfy' s cold hands the fierce concuffion own, And Life clings trembling on her tottering throne.So fron1 dark clouds the playful lightning fprings, Rives the firm oak, or prints the Fairy-rings. 37° 2. " NYMPHs! on that day YE !bed from lucid eyes, Celefiial tears, and breathed ethereal fighs 1 would not feem necc!Tary for their motion alone. It is therefore probable, that our fen. fation of eleCtricity is only of its violence in paffing through our fyflem by its fuddenly diflending the mufcles, like any other mechanical violence ; and that· it is general pain ·alone that we feel, and not any fenfation analogous to the fpecific quality of the objeCt. N ature may feem to have been niggardly to mankind in bell:owing upon them fo few fenfes; fince a fenfe to have perceived eleCtricity, and another to have perceived magnetifm might have been of great fervice to them, many ages before thefe fluids were difcovered by accidental experiment; but it is poffible an increafed number of fenfes might have incommoded us by adding to the fize of our bodies. . Palfy's c~ld han~s. I. 367. Paralytic limbs are in general only incapable of being !bmulated lllto aCl:wn by the power of the will; fince the pulfe continues to beat and the fluids to be abforbed in them; and it commonly happens, when paralytic people yawn and 11retch them felves , (which is not a voluntary motion,) that the affeCted limb moves at the fame time. The temporary motion of a paralytic limb is likewife caufed by paffing the e1e8 ric fhock through it; which would feem to indicate fome analogy benvee~ the electric fluid, and the nervous fluid, which is feparated from the blood by the br:un, and thence difF11fed along the nerves for the purpofes of motion and fenfa tion. It probably ddhoys life by its fuclden expanfion of the nerves or fibres of the brain in the fame manner as it fufcs metals and fplinters wood or ftone, and removes the att;1ufphere, when it paffes from one objeCt to another in a denfe ll:ate. Prh1ts the Fairy-rings. 1. 370. See additional note, No. Xlll [ 37 ] When RrcHMAN rear'd, by fearlefs hafie betray'd, 'The wiry rod in Nieva' s fatal ihade ;- Clouds o'er the Sage, with fringed :lk.irts fucceed, 3 7 5 Flafh follows flaih, the warning corks recede ; Near and more near He ey' d with fond amaze The filver :llreatns, and watch' d the fa ph ire blaze ; Then hurfi the :lleel, the dart electric fped, And the bold Sage lay number' d with the dead! 3 So NYMPHS! on that day YE :fhed from lucid eyes Celefiial tears, and breathed ethereal fighs! 3. " You led your FRANKLIN to your glazed retreats, Your air-built cafiles, and your filken feats ; When Richman reartd. l. 373· Dr. Richman, Profeffor of natural philofophy at Peterfbmgh, about the year 1763, elevated an infulated metallic rod· to coilctt the ac:ial eleCtricity, as Dr. Franklin had previoufly done at Philaddphi::~; .mu as he was ubft.rVJ.ng the repulfion of the balls of his ei.eB: romet r approache.l t•Jo nearthc conduCl:.or, a~1t! rec~1 ving the lightening in his head wi th a loud cxplcfion, was !lrucl~ Jeaci .tnudil: l11s famdy. You led your Franklin:1. 383. Dr. Franklin was the fitl1that diLovcred tk\t lighte.ning confifled of eleCtric matter; he elevated a t:~ll rod \J!:h a .wire wnppcd roltnLI tt, and fixing the bottom of it into a gla fs bottle, ami prcfervws 1t ~rom f:~~lx.ug by means of filk-11rings, he found it eleCtrified whenever a cJqmJ p:llf;. •l over 1t, reC<;I v til" fp:nks by his finger from it, and charging cealed phials. This great difcme1) tau}lt us to defend houfes and ihips and temples from lightning, and alfo to unJ..: rll:and, tbat peopl~ |