"Moreover, in the stones from Benares, pyrites and globular bodies are exceedingly distinct. In the others they are more or less definite; and that from Sienna had one of its globales transparent. Meteors, or lightning attended the descent of the stones at Benares, and at Sienna. Such coincidence of circumstances, and the unquestionable authorities I have adduced, must, I imagine, remove all doubt as to the descent of these stony substances; for, to disbelieve on the mere ground of incomprehensibility, would be to dispute most of the works of

nature.

"Respecting the kinds of iron called native, they all contain nickel. The mass in South America is hollow, has concavities, and appears to have been in a soft or welding state, because it has received various impressions. The Siberian iron has globular concavities, in part filled with a transparent substance, which, the proportional quantity of oxide of iron excepted, has nearly the composition of the globules in the stone from Benares. The iron from Bohemia adheres to earthy matter studded with globular bodies. The Senegal iron had been completely mutilated before it came under my examination."

PHENOMENON OF THE SUN'S STANDING STILL.

The following is the opinion of the learned Rev. Doct. Adam Clarke, LL. D. F. R. S. upon the marvellous subject of the Sun's being arrested in his going down beyond the Mount of Gibeon, and remaining in that position about the space of one whole day.

Then spake Joshua to the Lord. Though Joshua saw that the enemies of his people were put to flight, yet he well knew that all which escaped would rally again; and that he should be obliged to meet them once more in the field of battle if permitted now to escape; finding that the day was drawing towards a close, he feared that he should not have time sufficient to complete the destruction of the confederate armies: In this moment, being suddenly inspired with Divine confidence, he requested the Lord to perform the most stupendous miracle that had ever been wrought, which was no less than to arrest the sun in its course, and prolong the day till the destruction of his enemies had been completed!

Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. To account for this miracle, and to ascertain the manner in which it was wrought, has employed the pens of the ablest divines and astronomers, especially of the two last

is viewed with silent awe and reverence; attributing the causes to the will of the Supreme Being, they do not presume to judge of the means by which they were produced, nor the purposes for which they were ordered; and we are naturally led to suspect the influence of prejudice and superstition, in their descriptions of such phenomena; my inquiries were therefore chiefly directed to the Europeans, who were but thinly dispersed about that part of the country.

"The information I obtained was, that on the 19th of December, 1798, about eight o'clock in the evening a very luminous meteor was observed in the heavens, by the inhabitants of Benares, and the parts adjacent, in the form of a large ball of fire that it was accompanied by a loud noise, resembling thunder; and that a number of stones were said to have fallen from it, near Krakhut, a village on the north side of the river Goomty, about 14 miles from the city of Benares.

"The meteor appeared in the western part of the hemisphere, and was but a short time visible: It was observed by several Europeans, as well as natives, in different parts of the country.

"In the neighbourhood of Junapoor, about 12 miles from the spot where the stones are said to have fallen, it was very distinctly observed by several European gentlemen and ladies; who described it as a ball of fire accompanied with a loud rumbling noise, not unlike an ill-discharged platoon of musketry. It was also seen, and the noise heard, by various persons at Benares. Mr. Davis observed the light come into the room where he was, through a glass window, so strongly as to project shadows from the bars between the panes, on a dark coloured carpet, very distinctly; and it appeared to him as luminous as the brightest moonlight.

"When an account of the fall of the stones reached Benares, Mr. Davis, the judge and magistrate of the district, sent an intelligent person to make enquiry on the spot. When the person arrived at the village near which the stones were said to have fallen, the natives, in answer to his enquiries, told him, that they had either broken to pieces, or given away to the Tesseldar, (native collector) and others, all that they had picked up; but that he might easily find some in the adjacent fields, where they would be readily discovered, (the crop being then not above two or three inches above the ground,) by observing where the earth appeared recently turned up. Following these directions, he found four, which he brought to Mr. Davis; most of these, the force of the fall had buried, according to a measure he produced, about six inches deep, in fields which seemed to have been recently watered; and it appeared, from the man's description, that they must have lain at the distance of about a hundred yards from each other.

it will appear half enlightened and half dark; but the dark parts will be seen to come successively into the light, and the enlightened parts into the shade; while the candle itself which gives the light, is fixed, not changing its position.

5. I consider the solar influence to be the cause both of the annual and diurnal motion of the earth; and that while that influence continues to act upon it, according to the law which God originally impressed on both the earth and the sun, the annual and diurnal motions of the earth must continue; and that no power, but the unlimited power of God, can alter this influence, change or suspend the operation of this law; but that He is such an infinitely FREE AGENT, that He can, when his unerring wisdom sees good, alter, suspend, or even annihilate all secondary causes and their effects; for it would be degrading to the perfections of his nature to suppose, that he had so bound himself by the laws which he has given for the preservation and direction of universal nature, that he could not change them, alter their effects, or suspend their operations, when greater and better effects, in a certain time or place, might be produced by such temporary change or suspension.

6. I consider, that the miracle wrought on this occasion, served greatly to confirm the Israelites, not only in the belief of the being and perfections of God, but also in the doctrine of an especial providence, and in the nullity of the whole system of idolatry and superstition.

7. That no evil was done by this miraculous interference, nor any law or property of nature ultimately changed; on the contrary, a most important good was produced, which probably, to this people, could not have been brought about any other way; and that, therefore, the miracle wrought on this occasion, was highly worthy of the wisdom and power of God.

8 I consider, that the terms in the text employed to describe this miracle, are not when rightly understood, contrary to the well established notions of the true system of the universe; and are not spoken, as some have contended, ad captum vulgi, to the prejudices of the common people, much less do they favour the Ptolemic or any other hypothesis, that places the earth in the centre of the solar system.

Having laid down these preliminaries, some short observations on the words of the text may be sufficient.

And the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.

It seems necessary here to answer the question, At what time of the day did this miracle take place? The expression bechatsi hashamayim, in the midst of heaven, seems to intimate, that the sun was at that time on the meridian of Gibeon, and consequently had one half of its course to run; and this sense

to their reaching the earth. Internally, they consisted of a number of small spherical bodies, of a slate colour, embedded in a whitish gritty substance, interspersed with bright shining spiculæ, of a metallic or pyritical nature. The spherical bodies were much harder than the rest of the stone: The white gritty part readily crumbled, on being rubbed with a hard body; and, on being broken, a quantity of it attached itself to the magnet, but more particularly the outside coat or crust, which appeared almost wholly attracted by it.

"As two of the more perfect stones which I had obtained, as well as parts of some others, have been examined by several gentlemen well versed in mineralogy and chemistry, I shall not attempt any further description of their constituent parts; nor shall I offer any conjecture respecting the formation of such singular productions, or even record those which I have heard of others, but leave the world to draw their own inferences from the facts above related. I shall only observe, that it is well known' there are no volcanos on the continent of India ; and, as far as I can learn, no stones have been met with, in that part of the world, which bear the smallest resemblance to those above described."

The president having favoured Mr. Haward with specimens of the Yorkshire and Italian stones, and Mr. Williams with specimens of that from Benares; he likewise obtained a specimen of a stone from Bohemia, and being thus possessed of four substances, to all of which the same origin had been attributed, the necessity of describing them mineralogically, did not fail to present itself. This was executed by the count de Bournon, who presented Mr. Haward with an accurate and scientific description of them. As we have not room to insert the whole of this description, we shall only observe, that there is a singular coincidence not merely in the general history of the stones, but also in their general external characters; since, whatever may be their size, they are covered over the whole extent of their surface with thin crust of a deep black colour: They have not the slightest gloss; and their surface is sprinkled over with small asperites. When broken. they are of a grayish ash colour, and evidently appear to be composed of four different substances, viz.

1. Small globular or elliptical bodies, from the size of a small pin's head to that of a pea, and sometimes even larger. 2. Martial pyrites, of an indeterminate form, and of a reddish yellow colour. 3. Small particles of iron, in a perfectly metallic and malleable state. 4. A grayish white earthy substance, which serves as a kind of cement to the others.

Mr. Haward adds, "They all exhibit a striking conformity of character common to each of these stones: and I doubt not but the similarity of component parts, especially of the malleable