Brydone's account, that the fhepherd, who faw the lamb fall, was near enough to it to feel, in a fmall degree, the electrical returning ftroke at the fame time that the lamb dropped down.-The blow which the woman received on the foot was unquestionably the returning ftroke. When a perfon walking, or ftanding, out of doors, is knocked down or killed by the returning ftroke, the electrical fire must rush in, or rush out, as the cafe may be, through that perfon's feet, and through them only; which would not be the cafe were the perfon to be killed by any main ftroke of explofion either pofitive or negative. 8. To account for the manner in which the man and horfes were killed, his lordship premises, that, according to Mr Brydone's account, the cloud must have been many miles in length; inafmuch as juft before the report, the lightning was at a confiderable diftance, viz. between 5 and 6 miles. The loud report refembled the firing of feveral mufkets fo clofe together, that the ear could scarcely separate the founds, and was followed by no rumbling noife like the other claps. This indicates, that the explosion was not far diftant, and likewife that it was not extremely near: for, if the explofion had been very near, the ear could not at all have feparated the founds. 9. Let us now fuppofe a cloud, 8, 10, or 12 miles in length to be extended over the earth, and let another cloud be fituated betwixt that and the earth; let them alfo be fuppofed charged with the fame kind of electricity, and both pofitive.. Let us farther fuppofe the lower cloud to be near the earth, only a little beyond the ftriking diftance; and the man, cart, and horfes, to be fituated under that part of the cloud which is next the earth, and to be exactly as defcribed by Mr Brydone, viz. near the fummit of a hill, and followed by another a little farther down; and let us fuppofe the two clouds to be near each other, juft over the place where the man and horfes are: Let the remote end of the cloud approach the earth, and difcharge its electricity into it. In this cafe the following effects will take place: 10. When the upper cloud difcharges its electricity into the earth from the remote end, the lower cloud will difcharge its electricity into the nearer end of the upper cloud, which is fuppofed to be directly over the place of the cart and horfes, or nearly fo. This accounts for the loud report of thunder that was unaccompanied by lightning. The report must be loud from its being near; but no lightning could be perceived, by reafon of the thick cloud fituated immediately between the fpectator and the space betwixt the two clouds where the lightning appears. 11. As the lower cloud gradually approached towards the earth, that part of the latter where the man and horfes were, muft of course become fuperinduced by the elaftic electrical preffure of the electrical atmosphere of the thunder cloud; which fuperinduced elaftic elec trical preffure muft gradually have increased as the cloud came clofer to the earth, and approached nearer to the limit of the ftriking diftance, 12. Hence, if any conducting body (not having prominent or conducting points) were to be placed Apon the furface of the earth, and there electrically infulated; then fuch conducting body, by the laws of electricity, muft, at its upper extre mity (namely the part nearest to the pofitive cloud) become negative; at its lower extremity it muft become pofitive; and, at a certain intermediate point, it will be neither plus nor minus. This infulated conducting body, thus fituated, will be in three oppofite ftates at the fame time, that is to fay, it will be, at the fame time pofitively electri fied, negatively electrified, and not electrified at all. For a demonftration of this propofition, his lordship refers to his Principles of electricity; but it is an established fact in electricity. 13. If this conducting body on the furface of the earth be not infulated, or be but imperfectly infulated, then the whole of fuch body, from its being im merged in the electrical atmosphere of the posi tive cloud, will become negative; because part of the electricity of the conducting body will in this cafe pafs into the earth; and the conducting body will become the more negative, as it becomes the more deeply immerged into the dense part of the elaftic electrical atmosphere of the approaching thunder cloud. 14. When the lower cloud comes fuddenly to discharge with an explofion its fuperabundant electricity into the upper one, then the elaftic electrical atmosphere of the former will cease to exift; confequently the electrical fluid, which had been gradually expelled into the common ftock from the conducting body on the furface of the earth, muft, by the fudden removal of the fuperinduced elaftic electrical pref fure of the electrical atmosphere of the thunder cloud, fuddenly return from the earth into the faid conducting body, producing a violent commotion fimilar to the pungent fhock of a Leyden jar in its fenfation and effects. 15. This, which his lordship calls the electrical returning stroke, he fuppofes to have been what killed the man and horfes in the prefent cafe, they having become strongly negative before the explosion, The man, according to Mr Brydone's account, was fitting when he received the ftroke, and his legs were hanging over the fore part of the cart at the time of the explofion. The returning ftroke, therefore, could not enter his body through the legs; and this accounts for the skin of his legs not having been at all burnt or fhrivelled, as the skin was on many other parts of his body; and it likewife fhows e reafon why the zig-zag line, which was terminated by the chin, did not extend lower than the thigh. 16, Mr Brydone likewise informs us, that the hair of the horfes was much finged over the greatest part of their bodies, but was moft perceptible on the belly and legs. This is eafily accounted for by the returning ftroke; for the lower part of the bodies of these animals must of course have been more effected than any other part, as the electrical fire must have rushed fuddenly into their bodies through the legs, which had made a deep impreffion on the duft. 17. The various effects produced on the cart may be explained alfo from the returning ftroke with equal facility. The fplinters were thrown off by the interruption of good conductors; the wood being a much lefs perfect conductor than the iron. It is alfo evident, that it was the electrical returning fire that produced the marks of fufion on that part of the iron of the wheels which was in contact with the ground; inasmuch as the whole electricity, at the inftant inftant of the explofion, did enter at thefe places. 18. No perfon in the leaft verfed in the principles of electricity can hesitate to affent to the propofition, that the electrical returning ftroke muft exift under circumftances fimilar to thofe explained above; but it may be objected, as the reviewers formerly did, that the quantity of electricity naturally contained in the body of a man, &c. is by far too fmall to produce fuch violent effects. For an anfwer to this objection, his lordship refers to his book: By way of corroboration, however, he makes the following remarks: 19. No perfon can reasonably conclude, that the force of a returning ftroke muft always be weak when produced by the difturbed electrical fluid of a man's body, by reafon that a man's body contains but a fmall quantity of electricity; for it has never been proved that a man's body contains only a fmall quantity of electrical fluid; neither is there the smallest reafon to believe fuch an hypothefis, which appears, on many accounts, to be completely erroneous; and if that hypothefis be erroneous, the objection to the ftrength of an electrical returning ftroke remains altogether unfupported by argument. "When a body is faid to be plus or pofitive (fays his lordship), it fimply means, that the body contains more than its natural fhare of electricity, but does not fay that it is completely faturated with it. In like manner, when a body is faid to be minus or negative, it only fignifies, that the body contains less than its natural fhare of electricity; but does not imply that fuch body is completely exhausted of the electricity which it contains in its natural ftate. Now (fays he), the ftrength of natural electricity is fo immenfe, when compared with the very weak effects of our largeft and best contrived electrical machines, that I conceive we cannot, by means of artificial electricity, expel, from a man's body, the thoufandth, or perhaps the ro,oooth, part of the electrical fluid which it contains when in its natural state." 20. An hypothefis, which eafily accounts for any natural phenomenon, has a much better claim to our attention than an oppofite one, which prevents it from being intelligibly explained. There is no reafon to conclude that any electrical machine, of any given fize, is capable of rendering a conduct. ing body either completely plus or completely minus; but far otherwife. And it would have been as logical for any perfon fome years ago (when electrical machines were not brought to their prefent ftate) to have maintained, that thofe very imperfect machines were capable of rendering a body completely pofitive or completely negative, as for us to pretend to do it at this day. We evidently have not, with our machines, even approached the limit of electrical ftrength, particularly in refpect to the returning ftroke: for it is remarkable, that, by the laws of electricity, the ftrength of the electrical returning firoke, near the limit of the ftriking distance, docs increafe in a greater ratio than the ftrength of the main ftroke from the charged body producing the elaftic electrical atmofphere fuperinduced. Thus, let us attempt to produce the returning ftroke by means of a me tallic conductor of about 20 or 21 inches in length, and of about 2 inches in diameter; and by means of another metallic body of equal dimenfions pla ced parallel to the prime conductor, juft out of the limit of the ftriking distance; and let the prime conductor be charged by one of the common glafs globes of lefs than 9 inches in diameter; the returning ftroke in this cafe will be fo weak, that it can hardly be said to exist: but if the experiment be made by a larger cylinder, and a metallic prime conductor of about 3 feet 4 inches long, by nearly 44 inches diameter, and alfo by another metallic body of equal dimenfions with this prime conductor, then there will be no comparison betwixt the ftrength of the returning ftroke obtained out of the ftriking diftance, and the ftrength of the main ftroke received immediately from the prime conductor; the fharpnefs and pungency of the returning ftroke being fo much fuperior. The returning ftroke in this cafe is like the fudden' difcharge of a weakly electrified Leyden jár, provided due attention be paid to the rules for obtaining a strong returning ftroke. 21. In the cafe of a returning ftroke, the ftrength depends, according to his lordship's hypothefis, not fo much on the quantity of the electric fluid, as on its velocity whence alfo it depends lefs on the quantity of furface ufed than on the ftrength of the electrical preffure of the elaftic electrical atmosphere fuperinduced upon the body ftruck previous to the explosion. But the electrical preffure of the elaftic electrical atmosphere of the great thunder cloud which produced the mifchief on the present occafion, muft have been immenfely greater than that of a metallic prime conductor; and it is not furprising that the effects fhould be proportioned to the caufes. 22. His lordship next accounts for the returning ftroke not being felt by the man who followed Lauder's cart. This, he thinks, may in fome degree be accounted for by the latter having been higher up the bank; though it may better be done by fuppofing the cloud to have been pending nearer the earth over the fpot where Lauder was killed, than over the place where his companion was; for, in order to receive a dangerous returning ftroke, it is neceflary that he should be immerged, not merely in the cloud's atmosphere, but in the denfe part of the cloud's electrical atmofphere. It may alfo be accounted for by fuppofing that the 2d cart were either better connected with the common flock, or better infulated; for either of these circumstances will weaken a returning ftroke prodigiously. Now Mr Brydone mentions, that there had been an almost total want of rain for many months. He alfo fays, that the ground, at the place where Lauder was kill ed, was remarkably dry, and of a gravelly foil. This ftate of the ground was particularly adapted. to the production of the electrical returning stroke, when produced upon the large fcale of nature, where the elaftic electrical preffure is fo powerful. (15.) LIGHTNING, STANHOPE'S THEORY OF, OBJECTED TO. To the above theory of his lordfhip, fome objections have been made; and founded on experiments published in the Gent. Mag. for 1785. These were made with an infulated rod of iron of confiderable length, rifing fome feet higher than a common conductor placed at the other end of the houfe. A fet of bells were affixed to the former, which in a thunder ftorm, even when the thunder was 4 or 5 miles diftant, were Gg 2 rung rung by the electricity of the atmosphere; but whenever a flash of lightning burft from the cloud, even though at the diftance juft mentioned, the fame flash paffed through the conductor alfo, and the bells ceafed to ring fometimes for feveral feconds; then they began again, and continued to ring till they were ftopped by another flash. This flash was undoubtedly what earl Stanhope calls the returning ftroke; of which we fhall give fome explanation. In confidering the whole doctrine of that ftroke, with the explanation laid down by his lordship, the following obfervations occur. 1. In the experiments made by his lordship to demonstrate the existence of the returning ftroke, there is a deception, of which the reviewers take notice, viz. that the man touches a large prime conductor, which, by the operation of the machine, becomes negatively electrified as well as himself. Hence, when the discharge is made, all the fire returning to that conductor muft pafs through his body as well as that of which his body itself is fuppofed to be deprived; and this, though no other caufe intervened, muft nearly double the ftrength of the fhock. To make the experiment more fairly, it would be neceffary to take away this fecond conductor, and let the man only touch the brass ball communicating with the earth. 2. In this experiment there is another deception, not taken notice of by the reviewers, viz. that any body immersed in a positive electrical atmofphere becomes negative. Hence the ad conductor, by being applied to the air pofitively electrified by the machine, becomes almost as ftrongly negative as if another machine had been applied to it on purpose; and this negative electricity will be the ftronger in proportion to the ftrength of electricity in the air furrounding it. Again, a plate of air may be charged by two fmooth pieces of metal held at a small diftance from each other, one of them connected with an electrical machine, and the other with the earth, Now fuppofing, instead of the usual communication, that a man standing upon an infulating ftool, held the lower metallic plate in one hand, and with the other hand touched the earth, or a conductor communicating with it, it is plain, that by touching the upper plate, the electricity acquired by the air between them would be difcharged, and that the man would feel what earl Stanhope calls the returning ftroke; but which in truth is the flock of a charged electric fubftance, and would therefore be proportionably pungent. Now, in his lordship's experiments, the two conductors anfwer exactly to the two metallic plates above mentioned; the air between them receives a charge, and is difcharged by the explofion from the prime conductor, because this conductor forms one of the charging plates. It is true, that the round fhape of the conductors renders them unfavourable for trying the experiment; and this is one reason why it requires a great power of electricity to make the returning ftroke fenfible. The thickness of the plate of air interpofed betwixt the two conductors is another reafon; but this makes no difference as to the principles; for his lordship's experiment is undoubtedly no other than that of the Leyden phial. Were his lordfhip to use two flat plates inftead of round con ductors, the deception would then be removed; and we may venture to determine a priori, that the returning ftroke would then be not only very fevere, but even dangerous, with a very powerful machine and large plates. 3. Though the ad conductor were entirely removed, yet there would ftill be a deception in this experiment, for then the furface of the man's body would act in fome meafure as one of the metallic plates; so that ftill the experiment would be on the principles of the Leyden phial, though much weaker than before. 4. To make this experiment abfolutely without deception, the man should stand upon the ground without touching any thing; and in that cafe we may venture to affirm, that he would feel no returning fhock. His being infulated varies the nature of the experiment entirely, as will eafily be understood from the following confiderations. Under the article ELECTRICITY, it is shown, that pofitive electricity does not confift in an accumulation, nor negative electricity in a deficiency, of the fluid; but that all electric phenomena are to be accounted for from the mere motion of the fluid, and that this motion is always a circulation. It is proved, that in the working of a common machine, the electric fluid comes from the earth; that it is accumulated around the prime conductor; evaporates in the air; and is then filently abforbed by the earth, and reconducted to the machine. Hence, in the charging of a machine which works pofitively, the earth, and all bodies on its furface, for fome way round, are in a negative ftate; because they are absorbing the electrical fluid from the atmosphere. That part of the earth indeed directly under the feet of the machine, and perhaps fome little way farther, is pofitive; because it is giving out electricity: but the negative portion will be much more extenfive. When the conductor is discharged by a spark, then the circulation ceafes in a great meafure by the collifion of the two oppofite ftreams of electric matter. All bodies on the furface of the earth, then, as far as it was negatively electrified, muft receive what his lordship calls the returning stroke ; but the electricity being diffufed among such a number, and over fuch a wide extent, it is no wonder that it should be infenfible. If, however, we infulate a large conducting body, and then make another part of it communicate with the earth by means of a good conductor, we instantly put it in a fituation fit for tranfmitting more than its share of the electricity of the atmosphere, and reducing it to the ftate of the infulated rubber of an electrical machine, through which the whole quantity of electricity must pass to the phial held towards it, in order to be charged negatively. In proportion to this quantity tranfmitted the fhock must be, not because the conductor has loft a large fhare of its natural electricity, but becaufe a large quantity is artificially made to pass through it. We may therefore fafely venture to affert, that, in thunder ftorms, unless a body tranfmits more than its natural proportion of electric matter, no fhock will be felt, much less can the perfon be killed. 5. In his explanation of the accident which happened to Lauder, his lordship is reduced to the greatelt difficulty, and makes one of the most unphilofophical shifts in the world; no lefs than than that of arranging the clouds of heaven, not according to fact, but according to his own imagination. He fuppofes the existence of two clouds, one below the other, and afcribes to them various motions and fituations; but who knows whether fuch clouds ever exifted? His lordfhip does not pretend that any body ever saw them; and thus he runs into what is termed by logicians a vicious circle: he firft affumes data, purpofely made to accord with his hypothefis, and then proves the hypothefis from the data. 6. Granting the arrangement of the clouds, and every thing that his lordship defires, the main requifite is ftill wanting, viz. a flash of lightning at a distance to produce the returning ftroke. According to him, the diftant flash and returning ftroke muft be fimultaneous; but Mr Brydone mentions no fuch thing: on the contrary, there had been no flash for fome little time before; and the immenfe velocity of the electric fluid will not allow us to fuppofe, that it would take up the ufual time betwixt thunder-claps in travelling 5 or 6 miles. 7. His lordship accounts for no lightning being feen at the time of the explosion in a very arbitrary and unnatural manner, by fuppofing it to have proceeded from a difcharge of the one imaginary cloud into the other; and that it was not feen on account of the thickness of the lower cloud. A much more natural fuppofition muft be, that it happened below the cart-wheels, but was not feen on account of its being day-light, and the cloud of duft which it raised. The fucceffion of noifes, too, indicated a fucceffion of explosions, the flashes of which would be lefs eafily obferved than a fingle large one. 8. It feems altogether impoffible, that the return of any quantity of natural electricity into a body fhould fhatter that body to pieces. In the prefent cafe, the fire entered by a small part of the fron of the wheels, and this part was melted. His lordship does not hefitate to own, that the fufion was a proof, that the whole fire belonging to the cart, man, and horfes, or at leaft to the cart and man, had entered by this part of the wheels, and confequently more than naturally belonged to that small part of iron. The fame evidence, however, will hold good with regard to every other part. We grant that the fire entered the man's body by his right thigh: this might have therefore been burnt by receiving the fire belonging to the whole body; but it ought then to have quietly diffused itfelf through the other parts of his body, or at leaft, if any damage had been done, it ought to have been done only to the internal parts. Inftead of this, a broad zig-zag line upon his body indicated a vaft quantity of electric matter running along the furface without entering the body at all. In like manner, his hat being torn in pieces, indicated 2 violent explosion of electric matter at his head, where there ought to have been little or no explofion, as none could be wanted there except what the bat had parted with; and it is ridiculous to fuppofe that bats part with fuch quantities of electricity as would tear them in pieces by its return. The shivering of the cart, the burning and throwing about of the coals, and all the other circumstances of the cafe, alfo point out in the cleareft manner, not a quantity of electric matter returning to supply any natural deficiency, but an enormous explofion of that matter from the earth overwhelming and deftroying whatever ftood in its way. That to explosions were made from the earth is very evident, because there were two holes in it; and the very fize of these holes indicates a much greater discharge of elec tricity than we can reasonably fuppofe to have been loft by the man, horfes, and cart. We fhall now confider the experiment quoted from the correfpondent in the Gent. Mag. Thefe, as well as the accident under confideration, undoubtedly fhow, that, during the time of a thunder ftorm, both atmosphere and earth are affected for a very confiderable way. With regard to the quantity of this electrical affection, however, though it muft undoubtedly be exceffive when taken all together, we can by no means agree that it is fo taken partially. From an experiment related in the Magazine above quoted, it appears, that the electricity of a violent thunder ftorm extends fometimes over a circle of 100 miles diameter. "Electricity (fays the author) feldom appeared without a shower; but I was furprised, on the sth of June 1784, that the bells rang with thin and very high clouds, and without the leaft appearance of rain, till the next poft brought me an account of a violent thunder ftorm, and very deftructive hail, at a village so miles diftant." We cannot fuppofe, that all this fpace was elec trified like a charged phial; otherwife, great as the explosions of lightning are, they would ftill be much greater. This is evident even in our electrical machines. A fingle phial may be charged much higher than a battery, as appears by the electrometer; but the battery, though lefs charged, will have incomparably more power than a fingle phial. His lordship appears to have deceived himself in this matter, by mistaking the extent of the electrified furface for the quantity of charge in every part of it. The furface of the earth in a thunder ftorm is exactly fimilar to that of a charged conductor. According to the extent of electrified furface, the fpark will be great or small and juft fo it is with lightning, for fome kinds of it are much more destructive than others. In all cafes, however, the quantity of electricity in a particular spot is very inconfiderable. Light ning ftrikes bodies, not because they are highly electrified, but because they afford a communica tion betwixt the atmosphere and some place below the furface of the earth. This ftroke is the aggregate of the whole electricity contained in a circle of probably many miles in diameter; but the returning ftroke, if bodies are in their natu ral ftate, can only be in proportion to the quantity of electricity in each fubftance contained within that space. It is in fact the lightning itself diffufed through the earth which makes the returning ftroke; and it is impoffible that every substance within two or three miles of the explosion can receive the whole flash, or another equal to it. It is only in cafes where the quantity of electricity, diffused through a great space, happens to dif charge itself through a human body or other con ducting substance of no great bulk, that the effects upon upon the latter can be any way confiderable. This was undoubtedly the cafe with the thunder rod mentioned by the correfpondent in the Magazine; for it received either from the atmosphere or from the earth, at the time of every flath, the whole quantity of electricity which had been diffufed for a confiderable way round. Pointed bodies, we know, draw off electricity very powerfully; infomuch that an highly charged jar may be deprived of almost all its power by merely prefenting a needle to it. We can be at no loss therefore to understand why a pointed conductor fhould draw off the electricity from a large portion of the furface of the earth, or from a confiderable portion of atmosphere. We muft now, however, inquire into the reason of these appearances of Iparks in places at fuch diftance from the explofion of the lightning. To understand this, we must always keep in our eye that principle fo fully explained under ELECTRICITY, viz. that there never is, nor can be, a real deficiency of the electric fluid in any fubftance or in any place. It is to be confidered as an abfolute plenum, and of consequence it can have no other motion than a circulatory one. At every difcharge of lightning therefore from the clouds into the earth, or from one cloud into another, there must be a return of the fame quantity to those clouds which have made the difcharge. In the vaft extent of electrified furface, fome part of these returns muft undoubtedly be made at great distances from the place where the explofion of lightning happens. As long as matters remain in their natural state, the electric matter will return by innumerable paffages in fuch fmall ftreams, that no perceptible effect upon any fingle fubftance can take place. But if a body be fo fituated, that a large portion of the electric matter must return through it from the earth, then fuch body will undoubtedly be more affected by every flash than the reft of the substances around it; and if the communication with the earth be interrupted, a flash of fire will be perceived betwixt the conducting fubftance and the earth at the time that a flash bursts out from the cloud. The strength of fuch a flash, however, must by no means be supposed equivalent to that of the main ftroke of lightning, unlefs we could suppose the whole electrical power of the vaft circle already mentioned to be discharged through the conductor. But though this may explain the reason of the fparks or flashes obferved in the cafe of the thunder rod just mentioned, we cannot, from this principle, account for the accident which befel the man and horfes. There was indeed at that time a very violent emiffion of electricity from the earth, but no diftant flash of lightning happened at the fame moment with it, to expel the electricity from the earth. It appears, therefore, that the electricity had in this cafe been accumulating in the earth itself, in a manner fimilar to that which produces earthquakes; and which is fully explained under that article. (See EARTHQUAKES, 22.) The thunder ftorm was the natural means employed to fupply that part of the earth with electricity, which was in the ftate of charging; and the moment that the quantity thus fupplied was thrown back, all figns of electricity muft ceafe, as much as when that thrown in upon one fide of a Leyden phial is again thrown off. Hence, when the flash burft out of the earth, and killed the man and horfes, that portion of earth, which abforbed the electricity till then, required it no longer; and of confequence the thunder ftorm occafioned by this abforption naturally ceafed. That this difpofition to an earthquake did really prevail in the earth at that time, is evident from the tremor which Mr Bell felt on the ground when walking in his garden. The ftroke which the woman received on the foot, the death of the lamb, and many fimilar circumftances concurred to fhow that there was an attempt to restore the equilibrium from the earth, as has been already related. The fame difpofition to an earthquake, however, was afterwards renewed; and on the 12th of Auguft that fame year, a fmart shock of an earthquake did actually take place, as Mr Brydone informs us. (16.) LIGHTNING, ULTIMATE CAUSES OF. See RAIN and THUNDER. LIGHT-ROOM, a small apartment, inclosed with glafs windows, near the magazine of a fhip of war. It is used to contain the lights by which the gunner and his affiftants are enabled to fill the cartridges with powder to be ready for action. *LIGHTS. n. f. [fuppofed to be called fo from their lightnefs in proportion to their bulk.] The lungs; the organs of breathing: we say, lights of other animals, and lungs of men.-The complaint was chiefly from the lights, a part as of no quick fenfe, fo no feat for any fharp difeafe. Hayward. * LIGHTSOME. adj. [from light.] 1. Luminous; not dark; not obfcure; not opake.-Neither the fun, nor any thing fenfible, is that light itself, which is the cause that things are lightsome, though it make itself, and all things elfe, vifible. Raleigh.-White walls make rooms more lightfome than black. Bacon.-Equal pofture, and quick fpirits, are required to make colours lightfome. Bacon. The fun His courfe exalted through the Ram had run, Through Taurus, and the lightsome realms of love. Dryden. 2. Gay; airy; having the power to exhilarate.It fuiteth fo fitly with that lightfome affection of joy, wherein God delighteth when his faints praise him. Hooker.-The lightfome paffion of joy was not that which now often ufurps the name; that trivial, vanifhing, fuperficial thing that only gilds the apprehenfion, and plays upon the furface of the foul. South. * LIGHTSOMENESS. n. J. [from lightsome.] 1. Luminoufnefs; not opacity; not obfcurity; not darksomeness.--It is to our atmosphere that the variety of colours, which are painted on the skies, the lightsomeness of our air, and the twilight, are owing. Cheyne. 2. Cheerfulness; merriment; levity. LIGIST, a town of Germany, in Stiria. (1.) LIGNAC, a town of France, in the dep. of Indre, 134 miles SW. of Argenton. (2.) LIGNAC, Jofeph Adrian DE, a French ecclefiaftic, born at Poitiers, who published several works, particularly Letters to an American, con cerning |