James's definition of "pure
religion and undefiled," can take stronger hold for the more
effective and more rapid uplifting of our race.[322]
CHAPTER XI.
FROM "THE PRINCE OF THE POWER OF THE AIR" TO METEOROLOGY
I. GROWTH OF A THEOLOGICAL THEORY.
THE popular beliefs of classic antiquity regarding storms,
thunder, and lightning, took shape in myths representing Vulcan
as forging thunderbolts, Jupiter as flinging them at his
enemies, AEolus intrusting the winds in a bag to AEneas, and the
like. An attempt at their further theological development is seen
in the Pythagorean statement that lightnings are intended to
terrify the damned in Tartarus.
But at a very early period we see the beginning of a scientific
view. In Greece, the Ionic philosophers held that such phenomena
are obedient to law. Plato, Aristotle, and many lesser lights,
attempted to account for them on natural grounds; and their
explanations, though crude, were based upon observation and
thought.
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