Some indeed had not wholly lost their Motion: continuing still to be lifted up. Others ponderous and sleepy, nodded, by mere Weight, their monstrous Heads. It seemed as if they had persisted in mounting upwards, till they coud rise no higher: their lower Parts pressing perpendicularly against the upper, which gradually swelled them out on _all Sides_. By partial and temporary Movements of the Air, some broad _unwieldy_ Caps lost the _vertical_ Direction of their Columns. The Columns likewise underwent a similar and gradual Change: rolling from their Pedestals or spiral Bases; and, at Times, assuming +every organized Shape+ that Fancy coud suggest. [Sidenote: Opinion of Philosophers.] 53. The imperceptibly slow yet perpetual Changes they underwent, strongly called to Remembrance, the Opinion of the great Berkeley,[19] as well as of the ancient Philosophers, that AIR GIVES FORM TO THINGS: scarcely a Breath of which seemed, however, to disturb their general Order. The Constitution of these enormous Masses was such as to reflect _some_ of the Sun’s Rays, and to transmit _others_ in a Variety of Colouring. [Sidenote: The Colours of the Thunder Clouds.] 54. The Parts next the Sun were of a _snowy_ Whiteness. Then of a _bright luminous Yellow_ melting into a _dusky Sulphur_: afterwards of a _Purple_. The Rays being now shorn; a Degree of Opacity and Transmission took Place throu’ half the Substance of the Cloud, which seemed of a _transparent Blue_ like the _Onyx_. [Sidenote: Delightful Tints visible only from the Balloon.] 55. These _delightful Tints_ must be ever eclipsed to a Spectator on the Surface of the Earth, looking upwards throu’ the gross Atmosphere that surrounds it; but highly _interesting_ to one who is suspended in a ratified and unencumbered Medium of the etherial Regions, where the Eye darts without Resistance above Clouds, and all visible Vapour. [Illustration: _A VIEW from the_ BALLOON _at its GREATEST elevation see Page IIII.a._ Publish’d May 1ˢᵗ. 1786, by T. Baldwin Chester.] Note: the Print, representing a circular View from the Balloon at its greatest Elevation, is taken from a Scene described in the above Chapter. CHAPTER IX. OTHER AËRIAL SCENES DESCRIBED. [Sidenote: Balloon Shadow traced on the Clouds.]