{TEXTBOOK} the Wonders of Nature

THE WONDERS OF NATURE PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Jane Werner Watson,Eloise Wilkin | 24 pages | 01 Sep 2010 | Random House USA Inc | 9780375854866 | English | New York, United States Johnny Morris' Wonders of Wildlife | National Museum & Acquarium Solomon did not neglect his charge, and he was anointed and crowned king of Ethiopia, in the temple of Jerusalem, and at his inauguration took the name of David. After he returned to Azab, and brought with him a colony of Jews, among whom were many doctors of the law of Moses, particularly one of each tribe, to make judges in his kingdom, from whom the present Umbares or Supreme Judges, three of whom always attend the king are said and believed to be descended. All Abyssinia was thereupon converted, and the government of the church and state modelled according to what was then in use at Jerusalem. By the last act of the queen of Sheba's reign, she settled the mode of succession in her country for the future. First, she enacted, that the crown should be hereditary in the family of Solomon for ever. Secondly, that after her, no woman should be capable of wearing that crown or being queen, but that it should descend to the heir male, however distant, in exclusion of all heirs female whatever, however near; and that these two articles should be considered as the fundamental laws of the kingdom, never to be altered or abolished. And, lastly, That the heirs male of the royal house, should always be sent prisoners to a high mountain, where they were to continue till their death, or till the succession should open to them. What was the reason of this last regulation is not known, it being peculiar to Abyssinia; but the custom of having women for sovereigns, which was a very old one, pervailed among the neighbouring shepherds in the last century, and, for what we know, prevails to this day. It obtained in Nubia till Augustus's time, when Petreius, his lieutenant in Egypt, subdued the country, and took the queen Candace prisoner. It endured also after Tiberius, as we learn from St. Candace indeed was the name of all the sovereigns, in the same manner Caesar was of the Roman emperors. The queen of Sheba having made these laws irrevocable to all her posterity, died, after a long reign of forty years, in before Christ, placing her son Menilek upon the throne, whose posterity, the annals of Abyssinia would teach us to believe, have ever since reigned. So far we must indeed bear witness to them, that this is no new doctrine, but has been steadfastly and uniformly maintained from their earliest account of time; first, when Jews, then in later days after they had embraced christianity. They only differ in the name of the queen or in giving her two names. This difference, at such a distance of time, should not break scores, especially as we shall see that the queens in the present day have sometimes three or four names, and all the kings three, whence has arisen a very great confusion in their history. And as for her being an Arab, the objection is still easier got over. They were her subjects; first, Sabean Pagans like herself, then converted as the tradition says, to Judaism, during the time of the building of the temple, and continuing Jews from that time to the year after Christ, when they became Mahometans. The bearing of the kings of Abyssinia is a lion passant, proper upon a field gules, and their motto, "Mo Anbast am Niziles Solomon am Negade Jude;" which signifies, 'the lion of the race of Solomon and tribe of Judah hath overcome. Methodist Magazine -- England Among fiery meteors are reckoned thunders, lightning, ignis fatui, lambent flames, and what are called falling stars. Unless we account for these as indeed it is easy to do upon the principles of electricity, we must suppose they are owing to sulphureous or bituminous particles, floating in the air, which when collected in sufficient quantities, take fire by various means. If a large quantity of inflammable vapour takes fire at once, the flame tears the cloud with incredible force, as well as an immense noise. But the light moving quicker than the sound, is seen before that is heard. Sometimes an exhalation of a milder kind takes fire, and produces lightning without thunder. When it thunders and lightens, it commonly rains too, the same shock driving together and condensing the clouds. And the wisdom of God appoints it so, for the preservation of his creatures. For if lightning falls on one who is thoroughly wet, it does him no harm at all. Not that the water quenches or resists the fire; but it conveys it into the ground. High places are most frequently struck with lightning if they have sharp points, as spires of churchs, or tops of trees, which as it were, attract the fire. It sometimes burns the clothes without hurting the body; sometimes breaks the bones without scorching the skin. It melts the sword in the scabbard, or money in the pocket, while the scabbard or pocket remains as it was. In general, it passes innocently through those things that make little or no resistence; but tear those in pieces with impetuous force which resist its passage. One very particular effect of lightning, is what the vulgar call fairy circles. These are of two kinds. One kind is a round, bare path, about a foot broad, with green grass in the middle, and is frequently seven or eight yards in diameter. The other is a circle of the same breadth, is very green grass, much fresher than that in the middle. These are generally observed after storms of thunder and lightning. And it is no wonder, that lightning, like other fires, move circularly, and burns more at the extremity than in the middle. The second kind of circles, without a doubt, spring originally from the first: the grass, which was burnt by the lightning, growing afterward more fresh and green. But of what kind was that meteor which appeared March 21, ? It was at least thirty-eight miles high. In all places near its course, it made a hissing noise like a sky rocket. Having passed Leghorn, it gave a sound like that of a large cannon, and quickly after like a cart, running over stones. It was computed to move one hundred and sixty miles in a minute, which is about ten times as swift as the diurnal motion of the earth. Its smallest diameter was judged to be above half a mile. No wonder, then, that so large a body, moving with such incredible swiftness through the air, though so much rarified, should cause that hissing noise. It is much harder to conceive, how such an impetus could be impressed upon it: how this impetus should be determined, in a direction so nearly parallel to the horizon! And what sort of substance it must be, that could be so impelled and ignited at the same time! Whatever it was, it sunk, and was extinguished in the Tyrrhene sea, to the W. The great noise was heard, on its immersion into the water, and the rattling around upon its quenching. On Thursday, March 19, , there appeared at London, about eight at night, a sudden great light, moving after the manner, but more slowly than a falling star, in a direct line, a little beyond and with all below Orion's Belt, then in the south west. In its way, it turned tapering upward, and at last spherical, near as big as the full moon. It was whitish, with an eye of blue, as bright as the sun in a clear day. It seemed in half a minute to move twenty degrees, and to go out as much above the horizon. There remained after it, for more than a minute, a track of reddish colour, such as that of red hot iron; and sparks seemed to issue from it, such as come from red hot iron, beaten upon an anvil. Within doors the candels gave no light; and without, not only stars disappeared, but the moon, nine days old, though the sky was clear, and she was then near the meridian: so that for some seconds, we had perfect day. Its height was seventy-three miles and a half. Hence it might be seen in all places, which were not distant from it more than two hundred and twenty leagues. Another appearance, which resembles lightning, in the aurora borealis, commonly called northern lights. This is usually of a reddish colour, inclining to yellow, and sends out coruscations of bright light, which seem to rise from the horizon in a pyramidical form, and shoot with great velocity into the zenith. Vapours of the same kind, that give rise to lightnings in the air, occasion damps in the earth. The damps usual in mines are of four sorts. The approach of the first and most common is known by the flame of the candle lessening till it goes out: as also by the men's difficulty of breathing. Those who escape swooning are not much hurt by this: but those who swoon away, are commonly on their recovery seized with strong convulsions. The second is the peasbloom damp, so called because of its smell. This comes only in summer, and is common in the Peak of Derbyshire. They who have seen the third sort of damp, describe it thus: in the highest part of the roof of those passages in a mine, which branch out from the main grove, a round thing hangs about as big as a football, covered with a thin skin.

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