Or give the Sun's phlogistic orb to roll.


[_Chase the shooting stars_. l. 115. The meteors called shooting stars,
the lightening, the rainbow, and the clouds, are phenomena of the lower
regions of the atmosphere. The twilight, the meteors call'd fire-balls,
or flying dragons, and the northern lights, inhabit the higher regions
of the atmosphere. See additional notes, No. I.]

[_Cling round the aerial bow_. l. 117. See additional notes, No. II]

[_Eve's silken couch_. l. 119. See additional notes, No. III.]

[_Where lighter gases_. l. 123. Mr. Cavendish has shewn that the gas
called inflammable air, is at least ten times lighter than common air;
Mr. Lavoisier contends, that it is one of the component parts of water,
and is by him called hydrogene. It is supposed to afford their principal
nourishment to vegetables and thence to animals, and is perpetually
rising from their decomposition; this source of it in hot climates, and
in summer months, is so great as to exceed estimation. Now if this light
gas passes through the atmosphere, without combining with it, it must
compose another atmosphere over the aerial one; which must expand, when
the pressure above it is thus taken away, to inconceivable tenuity.

If this supernatural gasseous atmosphere floats upon the aerial one,
like ether upon water, what must happen? 1. it will flow from the line,
where it will be produced in the greatest quantities, and become much
accumulated over the poles of the earth; 2. the common air, or lower
stratum of the atmosphere, will be much thinner over the poles than at
the line; because if a glass globe be filled with oil and water, and