I think, clearly proves it to be of the same character as
solar light. It is also corroborative of much that is inexplicable,
except in the identity of electricity with solar effulgence, as the
source of light, heat, and gravitation, as well as substituting
repulsion for centrifugal force, and must forever disprove the theory of
solar light being the result of mere metallic incandescence, or any
other equally exhausting combustion. The latter theory, with such
supposed expedients in nature, to carry out the mighty design of
creation, belittles the subject by its transitoriness, and is,
therefore, unworthy the conception of modern generations.

PHENOMENA OF HAZE, FOGS, AND CLOUDS.

The predominant haze, which generally envelops the landscape and reddens
the sun and moon during long droughts, is usually ascribed to smoke from
burning woods and forests, pervading the air. I have observed a similar
prevalent haze, connected with other extensive droughts than the one
from which the country is now (August) suffering, and have invariably
heard the same vague and inadequate cause assigned. Observation proves
conclusively, that the assigned is not the true general cause (although
it has its purely local effect), as with winds, for days together, in
opposite quarters from local fires on mountain or plain, such widespread
districts remain enveloped in haze, although hundreds of miles distant.
Neither over such districts was there any odor as from smoke pervading
the atmosphere (except temporarily from some neighboring chimneys, which
the then heavy air kept near the earth), nor felt by the eyes, which
very perceptibly smart when exposed to smoke. It is impossible, with
varying winds, that mere local fires should spread smoke so uniformly as
to comprise most of the area of the drought, which on this occasion
extended from our great western lakes to the Atlantic seacoast; and
anomalously, too, that it should have continued so long after a rain had
extinguished those fires.

I should assign a very different cause for this phenomenon. Rain drops
are negatively electric, while suspended moisture, such as fog, displays
itself in the form of vesicles or globules, distended by the presence
and prevalence of positive electricity, which refracts the rays of light
from so many myriad surfaces, that all objects are thus, necessarily,
obscured to the eye. During droughts, when haze prevails, positive
electricity in the air becomes in