Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

and twenty-three parts; each of which may be distinctly seen by the naked eye!

A grain and a half of gold may be beaten into leaves of one inch square; which if intersected by parallel lines, drawn at right angles to each other, and distant only the 100dth part of an inch, will produce twenty-five millions of little squares, each of which may be distinctly seen without the help of glasses!

The surface of any given quantity of gold, according to Mr. Magellan, may be extended by the hammer 150,092 times!

Eighty books, or two thousand leaves, of what is called leaf-gold, each leaf measuring 3.3 square inches, viz. each leaf containing 10.89 square inches, weighs less than 384 grains; each book, therefore, or twenty-five leaves, is equal to 272.23 inches, and weighs about 4.8 grains; so that each grain of gold will produce 56.718, or nearly fifty-seven square inches!

The thickness of the metal thus extended, appears to be no more than the one 283.020th of an inch! One pound, or sixteen ounces of gold, would be sufficient to gild a silver wire sufficient, in length, to encompass the whole terraqueous globe, OF to extend 25,000 miles!

Notwithstanding this extreme degree of tenuity, or thinness, which some carry much higher; no pore can be discerned in it by the strongest magnifying powers; nor is it pervious to the particles of light; nor can the subtlest fluids pass through it! Its ductility has never yet been carried to the uttermost pitch; and to human art and ingenuity is, probably, unlimited.

AN ACCOUNT OF THE STRANGE FACULTY OF WATER FINDING POSSESSED BY SOME PERSONS.

Water Finding: being an extract of a Letter from Charles de Salis, Esq. at St. Trone, near Marseilles to his brother, the Rev. Mr. de Salis, in England, dated June 17, 1772.

A Boy here of twelve years of age, has the faculty of discovering water under ground. This gift of his was discovered about a year ago in the following manner. He was standing at work, by his father who was digging, and on a sudden called out, "Do not dig too deep, or the water will appear." The man had the curiosity to dig about three feet deep, and found a considerable spring. This singular thing being known in the pro

vince, several people of distinction, who wanted water on their estates, sent for him. Among others Mons. Borelle sent for him to an estate of his where, according to tradition, there had been three springs. The boy, without hesitation, carried him to every one of them. Mons. de Bompart, commander of the squadron of Toulon sent for him to a house of his near town; Mons. de Bompart was so convinced of the boy's skill, that he immediately fell to work, and has succeeded. At a house which the Duke de Villiers lived in, some of the water conduits under it were choked up; and as the direction of them was not known they to save the expense of taking up the floors, sent for the boy; who on being carried to the spot, pointed to the place and said, "Here the conduit begins, and goes in such a direction, &c." -So much upon the relation of others: now for what I have seen myself.

There was a neighbour of mine, as curious as myself to find out whether this boy had such a gift. We agreed to put water in a large earthen pan, hermetically covered with another, and then placed it in a hole two feet under ground, in a vineyard that had been lately tilled. In order that nobody should inform him of it, at night we dug the hole ourselves, then covered it over, and smoothed the ground for twenty feet round. This we did in two places. The boy arrived next morning, and we took him about the country to shew his skill. He went before us alone, with his hands in a short waist coat, and stopped short whenever he found water, spoke of it, and followed to the spring head. By little and little we brought him to the place where the water was hid; and I never was so astonished in my life as to see him go out of the way, stamp upon the spot, and say, "There is water here; but it does not run.' The earth was removed, and the pan found directly under. We took him by the second place, which he also discovered; but was angry at being deceived. He then found out a large spring near my neighbour's house, which he was greatly in want of for an oil mill he has there.

"Sir,

[ocr errors]

London, August, 1772.

"The purpose of my writing to you is, to confirm the credibility of the letter from Charles de Salis, Esq. relative to discovering water under ground. In Portugal there are many who possess the same power. I cannot aver to have been a witness myself, but have my information from gentlemen of undoubted veracity, and in particular from Mr. Warre, brother-in-law to. the Consul, and from Mr. John Olive, of Oporto. I was at

along an uninterrupted line of eclipses, or rolling from side to side, would expose the other face, which the earth has never yet beheld. The stars would appear to be under the influence of the same capricious power; nothing would be seen but a succession of tremendous conjunctions. One of the summer-signs would suddenly be overtaken by one of the signs of winter; the Cow-herd would conduct the Pleiades, and the Lion would bellow in Aquarius: here the stars would dart along with the rapidity of lightning, there they would be suspended motionless; sometimes crowding together in groups, they would form a new galaxy at others, disappearing all at once, and rending the curtains of worlds, they would expose to view the abysses of eternity. No such spectacles, however, will terrify mankind, till the day, when God, relinquishing the reins of the universe, shall not have occasion to employ any other means for its destruction, than to abandon it to itself."

In addition to what this French author has observed, I would close this paper with a few of those sublime passages of holy Writ, which unquestionably exhibit, in a way and manner far beyond every other source of information, the omnipotent Power, consummate Wisdom, unbounded Goodness, and unparalleled Mercy of the supreme Being, the centre of the soul's felicity and, God over all, blessed for evermore!" He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not rent under them. He hath compassed the waters with bounds, until the day and night come to an end. By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent. Lo, these are parts of his ways, but how little a portion is heard of him.' Job xxvi.

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth his handy work. Day unto day uttereth speech, night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world: in them hath he sat a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race, Psalm xix. The day is thine, the night also is thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun. Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: thou hast made summer and winter. Psalm lxxiv.

'Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand? and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? He stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in,' Isaiah xl.

O Lord, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom hast thou made them all the earth is full of thy riches.' every thing that hath breath, praise the Lord.'

:

Lord, O my soul !'

Therefore, 'Let
And Bless the

[ocr errors]

THE ROCK IN HOREB.

An account of the identical rock which was smitten by Moses, from which flowed a running brook.

THE famous Rock in Horeb, antiently called Massah, or Meribath; and at present the stone of Moses, and the stone of the fountains; (being that which Moses struck with his rod, in order to give water to the children of Israel in the wilderness, Exod. 17) is preserved to this day, without the least injury from time or accidents; and is certainly a fragment from mount Sinai ; as appears from Dr. Shaw's description of it. "It is (says he) a block of granite marble, about six yards square, lying tottering as it were, and loose in the middle of the valley of Rephidim, and seems to have formerly belonged to mount Sinai, which hangs in a variety of precipices, all over the plain." (Shaw's Travels p. 352.)

It may not be unacceptable to the reader, to continue the description of this rock; which is as follows; "The waters which gushed out, and the stream, which flowed withal (Psalm lxxviii. 20.) have hollowed, across one corner of this rock, a channel, about two inches deep, and twenty wide, appearing to be incrusted all over, like the inside of a tea-kettle, that hath been long in use. Besides several mossy productions, that are still preserved by the dew, we see all over this channel a great number of holes; some of them four or five inches deep, and one or two in diameter, the lively and demonstrative tokens of their having been formerly so many fountains.

It likewise may be farther observed, that art or chance could, by no means, be concerned in the contrivance; for, every circumstance points out to us a miracle; and, in the same manner with the rent in the rock of mount Calvary at Jerusalem, never fails to produce a religious surprise in all who see."

Similar to which, is Dr. Pocock's account of this rock; and also that of the Prefetto's of Egypt; each of which the reader may see inserted in the Bishop of Clogher's translation of a manuscript journal from Grand Cairo to mount Sinai, page 14, 2d edition.

It may be observed farther, that, in considering this rock, as

a fragment, the miracle, of the water's flowing out of it, wil appear much greater, than if it had been in its natural bed, or united to the solid orb of the earth, for, it is not uncommon, in breaking up, or only boaring through the regular strata of the earth, to enter into a natural fissure, which, communicating with the abyss, is always full of water; and when such is broken into, a stream of water will immediately issue out, and continue flowing: but as this rock was separate, and detached from the regular and undisturbed strata; and lying loose upon the surface of the earth, it cannot be supposed to have had any communication with the natural fissures; and, therefore, the water, that proceeded from it, must have been owing to a supernatural cause, which is agreeable to what an ancient traveller (M. Beaumgarton, a German nobleman, who travelled into Arabia in the year 1507 see his travels in Churchill's collection of voyages, vol. 1. p. 337,) remarks: which miracle (of the water's flowing out of the above mentioned rock) was the more wonderful, because this stone, though it is separated from the rest of the rock; and is almost of a square figure; yet is fixed in the ground by only one pointed corner; and, consequently, not in so fit a posture to extract moisture from the earth; and therefore its sending forth such abundance of water must have been the work of an Almighty hand."

We may add likewise, that this stone was so small, exposed in such a manner, and situated in such a tottering condition, that it might easily be viewed on all sides; and even turned upside down, had the people, who attended Moses, suspected any cheat, or imposture in this affair. And, in order to take off all suspicion of this kind, might be one reason, why God made choice of such a stone as this, for the operation of this miracle; which was so extraordinary, and attended with such indubitable proof, that the persons, who had just before murmured, and questioned the divine mission of Moses; now entirely acquiesced in it.

And, if such persons as Corah, Dathan, Abiram, and their companies (who were ready on every occasion to find fault with Moses, and dispute his authority) were satisfied; surely our present unbelievers (who lay claim to great modesty and reason) ought to be so, since the miracle was examined by their own set of people; and they may have occular demonstration of the truth of it at this day.

« AnteriorContinuar »