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328 SWEDENBORG’S CORRESPONDENCE. [Doc. 94.
particles should at first be dis solved, and afterwards the most
subtle sulphur be sublimated, and that the air should thus
become impregnated with it ; which perhaps would not have
happened, if a different temperature had existed in the air,
sufficient to bind the particles together.
5. To maintain that an Etna or Vesuvius could fill the
whole atmosphere with sulphur, would be the same as if we
were to say that the rain ascends into the atmosphere from
the River Motala alone, or that one shower could give birth
to 200 waterfalls like those of the Motala. On the contrary,
the surface from which such a sublimation can take place
must be immensely large, i. e. it must take place from the
whole surface of the earth upon which the sun shines, and
whence continually particles are exhaled that fill the air,
For, besides, an eruption from one mountain can no more be
assigned as the cause of this, than one brook can be assigned
as the cause of rain.
6. On the same ground it might be supposed that more
meteors of this sort would appear in Sweden than anywhere
else in the world, and particularly at Fahlun, where at least
as much sulphur is drawn up as from Etna, since 200 roast
ing furnaces burn there day and night, and at least 200 blast
ing furnaces are there at work, and yet no more meteors are
seen there, than anywhere else.
7. The sulphur which causes meteors, and which can remain
suspended in the air, is far more subtle than that which
comes from an open fire, or from an Etna: such sulphur as
has already passed through an open fire, is not long held
suspended in the air, but is soon precipitated again ; but that
which has not yet been in the fire can be suspended in water,
as in acidulous springs, in the air, in the clouds, and after
wards in dry weather it may be combined with the air.
8. Therefore, neither the eruptions of Etna nor Vesuvius,
nor the roastings of ore at Fahlun, are the cause of any
meteors; for it is only when Etna or Vesuvius is about to
burn, that a quantity of fire is seen in the atmosphere in the
form of meteors, and some other phenomena; for then that
subtle sulphur is exhaled ; but never to my knowledge after
an eruption is over. Hence it is my candid opinion that the
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