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Show [ 38 ] Bade his bold arm invade the lowering lky, And feize the tiptoe lightnings, ere they By; 0 'er the young Sage your tnyfl:ic mantle fpread, And wrcath'd the crown eleCtric round his head.- Thus when on wanton wing intrepid LovE Snatch' d the raifed lightning fro1n the ann of JOVE; 3 90 Quick o'er his knee the triple bolt He bent, The clufi:er' d darts and forky arrows rent, Snapp'd with illumin'd hands each Baming fhaft, His tingling :6ngers fhook, and fl:amp' d, and laugh' d ; are alway;_pe:rf·mJy fafe in a room during a thunder jlorm if they keep tbemfelvts at three or four feet diflance from the walls; for the matter of lightning in paffing from the clouds to the earth, or from the earth to the clouds, runs through the walls of a houfe, the trunk of a tree, or other elevated objeCl:; except there be fome moifter body, as an animal, in contaCl: 'With them, or n~arly fo; aAd in that cafe the lightning leaves the wall or tree, and pafTes through 1he animal; but as it can pafs through metals with Hill greater facility, it will leave animal bodies to pafs through metallic ones. 1f a perfon in the open ai.r be furprized by a thunder ftorm, i1e will know his danger by obferving on a fecond watch :the time which pafTes between the flaD1 and the crack, and reckoning a mile for every four feconds and a half, and a little more. For found travels at the rate of H42 feet in a fecond of tin1e, and the velocity of light through fuch ftmll diftances is F.ot tg be eftimated. In thefe ci.rcumfl:ances a perfon will be fafer by lying down on the ground, than ereCl:, and fl:ill fafer if within a few feet of his horfc:; which being then a more e-levated animal will receive the il;lock in preference as the cloud palfes over. See additional notes, No. XIII. !J:trepid Love. I. 389. This ;lllegory is uncommonly beautiful, ,reprefenting Divine J u!ltce a~ difarmed by Divine Love, and relenting of his purp.>fe. It is cxprclfed o;t. an agate 1n the Great Duke's collcClion at Florence. Spence. [ 39 ] Bright o'er the B:oor the fcatter'd fragments blaz'd, 395 And Gods retreating trembled as they gaz'd; The immor-tal Sire, indulgent to his child, Bow' d his ambrofiallocks, and Heaven relenting fn1iled. VIII. '' When Air's pure dfence joins the vital Rood, And with phofphoric Acid dyes the blood, 400 YouR VIRGIN TRAINS the tran:Gent HEAT difpart,, And lead the foft combuftion round the heart; Tranjimt hen! difpart. l. 401. Dr. Crawford In his ingenious work on animal heat has endeavoured to prove, that during the combination of the pure part of the atmofphere with thQ phlogifiic part of the blood, much_of the matter of the heat is given out from the air; and that this is the great and perpetual fource of the heat of animals; to which we may add that the phofphoric acid is probably produced by this combination; by which acid the colour of the blood is changed in the lungs from a deep crimfon to a bright fcarlet. There feems to be however another fource of animal heat, though of a fimilac nature; and that this is from the chemical combinations produced in all the glands; fince lSy whatever caufe any glandular fecretion is increafed, as by friCl:ion or topical imfl;mmation, the heat of that part becomes increafed at the fame time; thus after the hands have been for a time immerfed in fnow, on coming into a warm room, they become red and hot, without any increafed pulmonary atlion. BESIDES THIS there would feem to be another material received from the air by refpiration ; which is fo necefTary to life, that the embryon muft learn to breath almoft within a minute after its birth, or it dies. The perpetual neceffity of breathing {hews, that the material thus acquireJ is per· petually con fuming or efcaping, and on that account requires perpetual renovation. Pel'haps the fpirit of al'limation itfelf is thus acquired from the atmofphere, which if it be fuppofed to be finer or more fubtle than the electric matter, could not long be retained. in our bodies, and mufr therefore require perpetual renoyatjon. |
