If it is easy to account for the old historical marvel of Solomon’s temple having stood unharmed amidst the ragings of lightning from tens of thousands of storms, it is more difficult to find the reason why many buildings of another kind should be constantly under attack. A notable case in point, related by the German naturalist G. Ch. Lichtenberg, occurred at the village of Rosenberg, in the province of Carinthia, Austria, belonging to the noble family of Orsini. The village church, although not standing in a very elevated position, was unceasingly struck, in the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, by lightning, which sometimes battered in the roof, sometimes broke down part of the steeple, and often flew in at the window on one side and out on the other. Very possibly, there were large pieces of metal on the wall, or in the roof; or, if not, there may have been masses of water near, underground, sufficient to account for the manifestations of the electric force. However, popular opinion, utterly ignorant as to such causes, ascribed the whole to the doings of evil spirits, and endless attempts were made to exorcise them by prayers, fastings, and sprinkling of holy water. But it was all unavailing. The lightning came again and again, and in the summer of 1730, a flash from the clouds, more violent than any preceding one, demolished the entire steeple. The Orsini family, suspected by many of the lower people of being the secret originators of all the mischief, in league with the evil spirits, erected another steeple, handsomer and far more solid than the one destroyed, to show their pious intentions. But the lightning visited it as before, on the average five or six times a year, doing so much damage that the whole church had to be taken down in 1778, being found in ruins. Happily, in the meanwhile the report had gone as far as the little village in Carinthia that something had been discovered for guarding all buildings, including spirit-haunted churches, against damage by lightning. Once more, the proprietors of the village built a new church on the old ground, but this time, by the advice of an Italian architect, they placed upon it one of the ‘heretical rods,’ made famous for having done good service in protecting the cathedral of Siena. Needless to say that it did again similar service.