“As for the causes of lightning, each person offered a different explanation, all different from each other. For those who study these matters suggest, on the basis of the science of nature, that it is a river of fire generated by the collision and disruption of clouds. The lightning is extremely fine and strikes against objects in its path with incredible force and thrust, bursting through them violently and suddenly. But laymen counter this theory by saying that the cause of the damage is a huge dragonlike serpent which is seized by some invisible force and tears apart anything that it encounters with its claws and the strength of its roughness and coiling motions, when it happens, that is, that its resistance and spasms thrust violently and drag against those who attract it.”