第26页 / 共483页

When I was about fifteen years old we had retired to our house

near Belrive, when we witnessed a most violent and terrible

thunderstorm. It advanced from behind the mountains of Jura, and

the thunder burst at once with frightful loudness from various

quarters of the heavens. I remained, while the storm lasted,

watching its progress with curiosity and delight. As I stood at

the door, on a sudden I beheld a stream of fire issue from an old

and beautiful oak which stood about twenty yards from our house;

and so soon as the dazzling light vanished, the oak had

disappeared, and nothing remained but a blasted stump. When we

visited it the next morning, we found the tree shattered in a

singular manner. It was not splintered by the shock, but entirely

reduced to thin ribbons of wood. I never beheld anything so

utterly destroyed.