Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1888-02-25
TmETALE oF AImUNoERBOLr.
Some Interesting Points About the
MefeOrIc Stone.

London Iclcgfaph.J
Some little while ago a thunderbolt
was launched, presumably at a guilty
head, by the Father of Gods and Men,
and fell in garden at Brixton. 1t has
since been analy2ed, and found to con-
aist of about 40 per cent. OF iron, IS per
cent. of sulphur, and a little lime,
nickel. and SILICA. There is nothing, in
fact, in the least mysterious about it,
and We can only regret that Lucian
did not live to introduce the result
Of the analysis into a new Dia-
logue of the Gods. What exquisite
fun he would have pOked mt Zeus on
the subject of this distressingly prosac
aud rationalistic account of the chief OF
his terrors How he would have
"chafed' the son of Saturn on the cs-
sentillly terreDe chemistry of his celes-
tial missiles The analyst-Mr. James
Morgan. of Ebbw Nale-no demi-god,
but plain, matter-of-fact Welshmnn-
has succeeded in accounting formore than
ninety and three quarters out OF a
hundred parts of thunderbolt by the
constituents above mentioned and If
Jupiter chooses to claim the almost in
intestinal fraction OF it which has es-
capped analysis rs representing the divine
element in this supposed symbol Of di-
yinity. the point is hardly worth dis
putting. The situation of Xeus, indeed,
ever since the death of Pan. has ap-
pealed SO strongly to every sympathetic
mind that it would he impossible TO
grudge him the benefit OF TINS doubt.
"Jove," rs Mrs. Browning sang in com
memoration Of the deceased just referred
To-, ",love," that right hand is unload
ed, Whence the thunder did prevail,
While III the idiocy of Podhead Thou
art starving, the stars pale, And thine
eagle. blind and old, Roughs his feathers
in the cold" This is not comfortable
position for monarch who has so en-
phatically "seen better days, as has Ju-
piter, and whose forlorn and SILVER
ing eagle once commanded as much
respect almost as Mercury him
self. His right hand is appa-
rently not altogether unlOaded, but
its thunder can 80 little be said TO "pre-
vail, " in the fashion of classical times,
that its employment for its present pur-
poses is almost worse than absolute dis
use. 1t must be fraught, indeed, with
the most humiliating recollections. To
be reduced from Thanksgiving on the
mountain ranges of Thessaly to pelting
n Brixton householder is unquestionably
something of Il "come-dOwn. Was It
for this that Vulcan labored at his Sici
han forge. and that his Cyclopcs fash
toned the weapon of the Cloud-com-
peler with alternate strokes? 1t IS
a far cry from Ktna 10 Brlxton,
and the lame husband of Aphrodite
can little have imagined, or, if he did,
would assuredly have much resented the
use which was to he made Of his handi-
work. and the unclassical destination
which it was to find. The small size,
too, of the Olympian missile does very
little credit to its original proprietor and
protector. 1t looks like the thunderbolt
of a god in reduced circumstances. To
Judge from the description, 1t would
appear to weigh not more than few
ounces-a mere peashoOter proJectlle as
compared with the enormous masses
of iron, sometimes weighing over
ton, which have been called by the same
classical name. Meteorites, 10 give them
their more scientific designation, vary
indefinitely in size and weight, and this
particular visitor to our southern suburbs
Is singularly insignificant IN bulk. 1t
supported its claim TO the popular
nomenclature by falling during violent
thunderstorm, though of course it has
no more connection with electric dis
turbances than it has with Jupiter.
Nevertheless, it is not difficult to under
stand how the superstition originally
grew up.
In pre-scientifc ages the meteorc
stone must have struck It's discoveries as
a phenomenon of peculiarly unac-
countable kind. and it Is not remarkable
that they should have associated it with
what was TO them an equally mysterious
calamity-death by lightning. And the
lightning flash has naturally been viewed
in all rude ages and by all primitive
peoples as the special weapon OF the
supernal powers. Even the most skep-
tical of the ancents had difficulty IN
regarding il as one of the ordinary ope-
ratlons Of nature, like the descent OF
the hail or rain which accompanied 1t.
and was irresistibly impelled to trace 1t
back to the impulse OF some mdi-
vidual and all-powerful will There are
few things in Latin poetry more divert
inc than the account given by the half
hearted little free.thinker Horace OF his
temporary conversion from Epicurean
agnosticism by thunderstorm. lie
relates with amusing simplicity how he
had been "obhged the word is his
own-to recant the doctrine of an insane
philosophy by the warning spectacle OF
Jupiter urging his chariot aud steeds OF
flame through clear sky, instead OF as
usual through a mass OF cloud. His
moral. however, was not q particularly
elevated one and hardly encourages the
hone that he foreswore all cOquettings
with the creed of Epicurus for
the future. He seems merely to have
arrived at the conclusion-which, in
deed. he enforces elsewhere IN his odes-
that the bolt of divine vengeance is
likely TO light upon the most towering
objects. and that the truest wisdom OF
man is to Gle low" Even lesson in
humility, however, is not without its
yalne. and il may be questioned whether
Horace's piety, strictly self-regarding as
il seems to have been, was not nearer
approach TO the religious spirit than is
to be found in the mood of Brixton
householder who picks up the ecclesi-
astical proiectile and dispatches it
the parcels post 70 an analyst.
Now that we know everything-or SO
nearly everything lna'' u hplo ouduS
board school boy in the upper standards
could teach him thing or two-we have
no doubt good reason to congratulate
Yet in spite OF our being
able to explain to that eminent but un-
orthodox philosopher that lightning is
discharge OF electricity, and a
nothing but meteoric