very heart with an agony of joy.  His labouring chest relieves itself with a deep sigh, and he feels that he could be contented to die that moment.  And indeed he was nearer death than he supposed; for as the string was sprinkled with rain, it became a better conductor, and gave out its electricity more copiously; and if it had been wholly wet, the experimenter might have been killed upon the spot.  So much for this child’s toy.  The splendid discovery it made—­of the identity of lightning and electricity—­was not allowed to rest by Ben Franklin.  By means of an insulated iron rod the new Prometheus drew down fire from heaven, and experimented with it at leisure in his own house.  He then turned the miracle to a practical account, constructing a pointed metallic rod to protect houses from thunder.  One end of this true magic wand is higher than the building and the other end buried in the ground; and the submissive lightning, instead of destroying life and property in its gambols, darts direct along the conductor into the earth.  We may add that Ben was a humorous boy, and played at various things as well as kite-flying.  Hear this description of his pranks at an intended pleasure-party on the banks of the Skuylkill:  ’Spirits at the same time are to be fired by a spark sent from side to side through the river, without any other conductor than water—­an experiment which we have some time since performed to the amazement of many.  A turkey is to be killed for dinner by the electrical shock; and roasted by the electrical jack, before a fire kindled by the electric bottle; when the healths of all the famous electricians in England, Holland, France, and Germany, are to be drunk in electrified bumpers, under the discharge of guns from the electrical battery.’

We now turn to a group of capital little fellows who did something more than fly their kite.  These were English skippers, promoted somehow to the command of vessels before they had arrived at years of discretion; and, chancing to meet at the port of Alexandria in Egypt, they took it into their heads—­these naughty boys—­that they would drink a bowl of punch on the top of Pompey’s Pillar.  This pillar had often served them for a signal at sea.  It was composed of red granite, beautifully polished, and standing 114 feet high, overtopped the town.  But how to get up?  They sent for a kite, to be sure; and the men, women, and children of Alexandria, wondering what they were going to do with it, followed the toy in crowds.  The kite was flown over the Pillar, and with such nicety, that when it fell on the other side the string lodged upon the beautiful Corinthian capital.  By this means they were able to draw over the Pillar a two-inch rope, by which one of the youngsters ‘swarmed’ to the top.  The rope was now in a very little while converted into a sort of rude shroud, and the rest of the party followed, and actually drank their punch on a spot which, seen from the surface of the earth, did not appear to be capable of holding more than one man.