Nature has not spread everywhere, in vain, a treasure of rarities for contemplation and admiration. Man, who is intrusted with the economy [Haushaltung] of the earth, [not only] possesses a capacity, [but] also takes pleasure in learning to know it, and through his insights praises the Creator. Even the terrible instruments of the visitation of the human species, the shakings of countries, the raging of the ocean that is [violently] agitated to its [very] bottom, the fire-spewing mountains, summon men to the contemplation of [nature], and are not less implanted in nature by God as a just consequence of constant laws than other usual causes of incommodity, which are held to be more natural only because we are better acquainted with them. The contemplation of such dreadful events is edifying [lehrreich]. It humbles man by showing him that he has no right, or at least that he has lost it, to expect convenient consequences only from the laws of nature, which God has ordered, and he also perhaps learns in this manner to perspect [einsehen]: that this arena [Tummelplatz] of his desires ought not equitably to contain the aim of all his views.

PREPARATION.

Of the Nature of the Earth in its Interior.

We know pretty completely the surface of the earth, when the ampliation is concerned. But we have under our feet a world still, with which we at present are but very little acquainted. The mountain-divides which open unfathomable clefts to our plummet, the caverns which we meet with in the bowels [Innern] of the mountains, the deepest shafts of the mines that we enlarge throughout centuries, are by far insufficient to procure us distinct knowledge of the internal structure of the great lump we inhabit. The greatest depth to which men have descended from the highest plane of the terra firma does not yet amount to 500 fathoms, i. e. not yet the six thousandth part of the distance to the centre of the earth, and yet these vaults still find themselves0 in the mountains, and even all terra firma is a mountain, in which, in order to arrive but at an equal depth with the bottom of the sea, one must go down at least thrice as deep. But what nature hides from our eye and from our immediate essays [Versuchen], she herself discovers by her effects. The earthquakes have revealed to us that the surface of the earth is full of vaults [Wslbungen] and cavities, and that under our feet hidden mines with various labyrinths run everywhere. The progress [Verfolg] of the history of earthquakes will put this beyond a doubt.

These cavities we have to ascribe to the very same cause which prepared the beds for the seas; for it is certain, when one [is informed] of the remains which the ocean left behind by its former stay over the whole terra firma, of the immense [unermeslichen] heaps of mus- sels that are found even in the bowels of the mountains, of the petrified sea animals which are brought up from the deepest shafts, I say, when one is but in some measure informed [unterrichtet] of all these, one may easily perspect that firstly, a long time ago, the sea covered all the land, that its stay continued long and is older than the deluge, and that finally, the water could not possibly have drawn back otherwise than by its bottom here and there sinking into deep vaults, and preparing the same deep basin, into which it has run, and between whose brims it is at present still confined [beschrSnkt erhalten wird], while the elevated parts of this sunk-in crust [Rinde] have become terra firma, which is everywhere undermined by cavities and whose tract is occupied by the steep ridges [Gipfeln], which under the name of mountains run through the highest heights of the terra firma according to all those directions in which it extends itself to any considerable length. All these cavities contain a glowing fire, or at least that combustible matter [Zeug] which requires but a small stimulation in order to rage with violence around it and to shake or even to split the earth [Boden] above it. When we consider the territory of this subterraneous fire in the whole area in which it extends, we must allow that there are few countries upon the earth which have not sometimes felt its effect. The island of Iceland in the remotest [part of the] north is subjected, and indeed not seldom, to its most violent shocks. In England and even Sweden there have been a few gentle [leichte] concussions.

They are however to be found in the southern countries, I mean, in those that lie nearer the equator, more frequent and stronger. Italy, the islands of all the seas which lie near the equinoctial line [Mittellinie], chiefly those in the Indian Ocean, are frequently disturbed by this agitation of their floor. Among the latter there is scarcely a single one that has not a mountain which either at present spews fire sometimes still, or at least did formerly [spew fire], and they are just as frequently 0 subjected to concussion. It is an agreeable precaution, if we [may] believe Hubners' account of it, that the Dutch take in order not to expose the valuable spices of nutmegs and cloves, which they allow to be cultivated on both the islands of Banda and Amboina only, to the danger of being extirpated from the earth if something like the fate of a total destruction by an earthquake should happen to these islands, by always maintaining 2 a nursery of both plants upon another island at a great distance from them. Peru and Chili, that lie near the line, are more frequently tormented by this evil than any other country in the world. In the former country a day seldom passes without a few small shocks of an earthquake being felt. One does not imagine that this may be considered as a consequence of the far greater heat of the sun, which acts upon the earth of these countries. In a cave [Keller] that is hardly

40 feet deep, there is almost no difference to be distinguished between summer and winter. So little is the solar heat able to penetrate the earth to great depths, in order to allure the inflammable matter and to put [it] into commotion. The earthquakes rather accommodate themselves to the nature of the subterranean vaults and these to those laws, according to which must have taken place at the beginning the sinkings of the uppermost crust of the earth, and which, the nearer to the line, have made the deeper and more various bendings inwards [Einbeugungen], whereby these mines that contain the tinder for the earthquakes are grown more extensive and thereby fitter for its incension [Entzundung]. This preparation [by what we have said] of the subterraneous passages is of no small importance to the insight of that which will afterwards occur[:] of the wide extending of earthquakes in great countries, of the tracks they pursue, of the places where they rage the most, and of those where they first begin. I [shall] now capture the history of the latest earthquake itself. I understand by it no history of the misfortunes which men have thereby suffered, no list of cities destroyed and inhabitants buried under their ruins. Everything horrible which the imagination can represent to itself must be collected in order in some measure to exemplify 0 to one's self the consternation [das Entsetzen] in which men must be when the earth under their feet moves [and is torn with convulsions], when everything around them falls [to the ground], when the water put in violent motion makes the misfortune complete by overflowing, when the fear of death, the despair on account of the total loss of all property, [and] finally the sight of others' misery, discourage the most steadfast mind [Muth]. Such a narrative would be moving, it would, as it has an effect on the heart, perhaps like- wise enable one to have self-improvement. But I leave this history to more able hands. I [shall] here describe the work of nature only, the remarkable natural circumstances which accompanied the dreadful event, and their causes.

Of the Forerunners of the Latest Earthquake.

I look upon the prelude of the subterranean inflammation, that afterwards grew so amazing, to be the atmospheric phenomenon which was perceived at Locarno in Switzerland on the 14th October last year at 8 o'clock in the morning. A warm vapour, as if coming out of an oven, diffused itself and in two hours turned into a red fog, which towards evening occasioned a rain red as blood, that, when it was caught, deposited of a reddish gluey sediment. The snow six feet deep was likewise tinged red. This purple rain was perceived [at] 40 hours, that is, [to extend] about

20 German miles in quadratum, yes, even to Schwaben. On this atmospheric phenomenon followed unnatural downpours, that in three days gave 23 inches of water, which is more than falls throughout the whole year in a country of a moderately damp nature. This rain continued over 14 days, though not always with the same violence. The rivers in Lombardy that have their source in the mountains of Switzerland, as also the Rhone, swelled with water and overflowed their banks. From this time prevailed in the air frightful hurricanes, which raged everywhere furiously. In the middle of November such a purple rain still fell in Ulm, and the disorder in the atmosphere, the whirlwinds in Italy, [and] the extremely wet weather continued. If we would form a conception of the causes of this phenomenon and of its consequences, then we must attend to the nature of the ground upon which it happened. All the mountains of Switzerland contain extensive clefts beneath them, which without doubt are connected with the deepest subterraneous passages.

Scheuchzer numbers nearly 20 gulfs, which at certain times emit wind. If we now suppose that the mineral substances hidden in the interior of these cavities are mixed and thereby occasion, with those fluidities with which they effervesce [aufbrausen], an internal fermentation which may prepare the materials nourishing the fire for that inflammation that within a few days is to break out entirely; if we, e. g. represent to ourselves that acid which is contained [steckt] in the spirit of nitre, and which nature herself necessarily prepares, how it, put in motion either by the afflux [Zuflus] of water or by other causes, attacked the earth containing iron [die Eisenerde] upon which it fell, then these substances must have been heated by their being mixed, and have ejected red warm vapours from the clefts of the mountains, wherewith by the violence of the ebullition [Aufwallung] the particles of the red earth containing iron were at the same time mingled and carried away, which occasioned the gluey rain, [red as] blood, of which we have made mention. The nature of such vapours tends [geht dahin] to diminish the expansive power of the air, and even thereby to make the water vapours4 suspended in it run together, as also, by the attraction of all the humid clouds floating in the ambient [rund umher] atmosphere, by means of the natural declivity [Abhanges] towards the region where the height of the columns of air is lessened, to occasion that violent and constant downpour which has been perceived in the aforementioned countries. In this manner the subterranean fermentation previously announced, by ejected vapours, the misfortune which it prepared in secret.

Eight days before the concussion the ground [Erde] near Cadiz was covered by a multitude of worms that had crept out of the earth. Only the adduced [angefuhrte] cause drove them out. Of several other earthquakes, violent lightning in the air and the fear that one notices in animals have been the precursors. The achievement of destiny followed after it with slow steps. A fermentation does not immediately break out into inflammation. The fermenting and heating substances, in order to produce incension, must meet with a combustible oil, sulphur, bitumen, or something of the same [sort]. As long as the heating extends itself here and there in the subterraneous passages, and the moment when the dissolved combustible substances are heated in the mixture with the others up to the point to catch fire, the vaults of the earth are shaken, and the decree [Schlus] of the fates is fulfilled.

The Earthquake and the Agitation of the Water of the 1st November 1755.

The moment at which this shock happened seems to be the most accurately determined at 50 minutes [past] o'clock a. m. at Lisbon, this time agreeing exactly with that at which it was perceived in Madrid, namely, from 17 to 18 minutes [after] 10 o'clock, when the difference of latitude of both cities is turned into the difference of time. At the same time the waters, both those that have a visible connection with the ocean and those that may be of a hidden kind, were shaken to an astonishing area. From Abo in Finland to the archipelago of the West Indies few or no coasts were free from it. At almost just the same time it controlled a tract of

1500 [German] miles. Were one assured that the time at which it was felt at Gluckstadt on the Elbe might according to the public accounts be fixed very precisely at 30 minutes [past] 11 o'clock, it would thence be concluded that the agitation of the water took 15 minutes to come from Lisbon to the coasts of Holstein. At this very time it was likewise felt on all the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, and its whole extent is not yet known. The waters on the terra firma that appear to be deprived of every connection with the sea, the well-springs, the lakes, were at the same time put into an extraordinary commotion [Regung] in many countries far distant from one another. Most of the lakes in Switzerland, the lake near Templin in the March, some lakes in Norway and Sweden, were put into an undulation [eine wallende Bewegung] that was far more boisterous and irregular than in a storm, and the air was at the same time calm. The lake of Neuschatel, if we may rely upon the accounts thereof, ran into hidden clefts, and that of Meiningen also did this, but soon came back again. At this very moment the mineral water of Tsplitz in Bohemia suddenly stopped [blieb ... aus], and returned [kam ... wieder] red as blood. The force with which the water was driven widened its old passage, and it thereby acquired a greater afflux. The inhabitants of this place had good [reason] to sing te Deum laudamus, while those of Lisbon struck up quite other tones.

Such is [the nature of] the incidents that befall the human species. The joys of the one and the misfortunes of the other have frequently a common cause. In the kingdom of Fez in Africa, a subterraneous power split a mountain and poured a blood-red stream out of its gulf. Near Angoul_me in France a subterraneal noise was heard, a deep vault opened itself on the plain and contained in it unfathomable water. At GZmenos in Provence, a spring grew suddenly slimy and ran afterwards [of a] reddish colour. The surrounding countries gave notice of similar alterations in their springs. All these took place at the same minute that the earthquake laid waste the coasts of Portugal. Here and there during even this short term of time [Zeitpunkte] a few concussions of the earth were perceived in far distant countries. But they almost all happened close to the Seacoast. At Cork in Ireland, as also at Gluckstadt and at several other places that lie near the sea, small quakings happened. Milan is perhaps at the greatest distance from the seashore of any place that was shaken on just the same day. [On] just this morning at 8 o'clock [Mount] Vesuvio raged near Naples and was quiet towards the time when the concussions happened at Portugal.

Contemplation of the Cause of this Agitation of the Water.

History affords no example of a commotion [Ruttelung] of all the [bodies of] water and of a great part of the earth so extensive and at the same time in the course of a few minutes. Hence circumspection is necessary, in order to gather the cause of it from a single case. The following causes, especially, which may have produced the quoted event of nature, may be conceived: either firstly, by a concussion of the bottom of the sea everywhere immediately under those places where the sea was shaken, and then a reason must be given why the veins of fire which produced these concussions run merely under the bottom of the seas, without extending themselves under the countries that are more nearly conjoined with these seas and frequently break off their connection. One would find himself perplexed by the question, Whence the concussion of the bottom, as it extended itself from Gluckstadt on the North Sea to Lubeck in the east and to the coasts of Mecklenburg, was not felt in Holstein, which lies in the middle between these seas, and where only perhaps a slight shaking was thought to be felt near the coast, but none in the interior [parts] of the country. But one is the most distinctly convinced by the undulation of the water far distant from the sea, as of the lake of Templin, of those in Switzerland and others. It may be easily imagined that, in order to put a [body of] water into such a powerful ebullition by the shaking of the bottom, the concussion must certainly not be small. But why did not all the circumjacent [umliegende] countries, under which the vein of fire must of necessity have run, feel this powerful shock? It is easily seen that all the criteria of truth are contrary to this opinion.

A concussion which is impressed around on the solid mass of the earth itself by a violent jolt happening at a place, just as the ground shakes at some distance when a powdermill blows up, in the application to this case likewise loses all probability, as well from the cause already mentioned as on account of the dreadful area which, when it is compared with the area of the whole earth, makes up a part of it so considerable that its concussion must necessarily draw after it a shaking of the whole globe. But we may now learn from Buffon that an eruption of subterraneous fire, which a mountain that were 1700 miles long and 40 broad might throw a mile high, could not displace the earth a thumb's breadth from its position. We have then to seek the extending of this agitation of the water in a medium that is fitter for communicating a concussion to great distances, namely, in the water of the sea itself, which is in connection with that which is put into a violent and sudden commotion by an immediate shaking of the bottom of the sea. In the Ksnigsberg Weekly News 8 I have endeavoured to estimate the force wherewith the sea is pushed on in the whole area by the jolt proceeding from the concussion of its bottom, by supposing the shaken place of the bottom of the sea [to be] but as a square whose side is equal to the distance between Cape St. Vincent and Cape Finisterre, i. e. the length of the west coasts of Portugal and Spain, and considering the force of the rising ground [to be] like that of a mine of powder, which in blowing up is able to throw the bodies that are situated upon it 15 feet high, and, according to the rules by which the motion in a fluid substance is continuous, I found it greater on the coasts of Holstein than the most rapidly advancing current.

Let us here contemplate from yet another point of view the force which it used from these causes. By [using] the plumb-line Count Marsigli found the greatest depth of the Mediterranean Sea [to be] over 1000 feet, and it is certain that the ocean at a proper distance from the land is yet deeper; but we shall here suppose 6000 feet only, i. e.
1000 fathoms deep. We know that the weight with which such a high column of seawater presses upon the bottom of the sea must exceed almost 200 times the pressure of the atmosphere, and that it still far exceeds the force of the fire behind a ball which is projected 100 fathoms away from the cavity of a cannon in the time of a [heart]beat. This prodigious weight could not hold back the force with which the subterraneous fire quickly ascended upwards, consequently this vix motrix was greater. By what pressure then was the water compressed, in order to shoot out suddenly towards the sides? and is it quite astonishing, if within a few minutes it is felt both in Finland and at the same time in the West Indies? It cannot at all be made out, how great the base of the immediate concussion may in fact have been; it is perhaps incomparably greater than we have assumed it; but among the seas where the agitation of the water was felt without any earthquake, on the coasts of Holland, England, [and] Norway and on the east sea, it was certainly not to be met with in the bottom of the sea. For then the terra firma [too] would have certainly been shaken in its interior [parts], but which was by no means observed. Though I ascribe the violent concussion of all the connected parts of the ocean to the single shock which its bottom suffered in a certain district, I do not mean for this reason8 to deny the actual diffusion of the subterraneous fire under the terra firma of almost all Europe. In all probability they happened at the same time, and both had a part in the phenomena that came to pass, only that each one in particular is not [to be] considered as the sole cause of [them] all together.

The commotion of the water in the North Sea, which occasioned [empfinden lies] a sudden shock, was not the effect of an earthquake raging under the bottom. Such concussions must be very violent in order to produce the like effect, and must have therefore been very sensibly felt under the terra firma. But I do not deny for this reason that even all terra firma is put into a gentle vacillancy by a weak power of vapours inflamed under its bottom or [by] other causes. This is seen with [regard to] Milan, which was threatened on this same day with the greatest danger of a total overthrow. We shall then lay down [setzen] that the earth was by a gentle vacillation put into an easy motion, which was so great that at 100 Rhineland rods it shook the earth [das Erdreich] alternatively backwards and forwards by an inch: and this motion would be so insensible that a building of 4 rods high could not thereby be put out of the perpendicular position by [more than] half a grain, i. e. by a half of the back of a knife, which even on the highest towers would be scarcely perceptible.

On the other hand, the lakes must have rendered this insensible motion very perceptible. For if a lake is e. g. but 2 German miles long, then its water would certainly be very strongly shaken by this small waver8 of its bottom; for the water then has in 14000 inches about an inch of fall, and a run-off which is nearly only about the half smaller than the run-off of a very rapid river, as the levelling of the water of the Seine near Paris may teach us, which, after a few vibrations happened now and then may have well occasioned an extraordinary shaking of the water. But we may with good reason assume the motion of the earth as great again, as we have done, without its consequently being felt on the terra firma, and then the motion of the inland lakes is the more [obvious and] comprehensible.

One will therefore no longer be surprised if all the inland lakes in Switzerland, in Sweden, in Norway and in Germany, without feeling a shake of the bottom, are seen [to be] so troubled and boiling up. But it is found somewhat extraordinary that certain lakes near this disorder entirely dried up, as the lake of Neuschatel, that of Como and that of Meiningen, though some of them have already filled up again. This event, however, is not without example. There are some lakes upon the earth which at certain times run out quite regularly by hidden canals, and return at a stated period [zur gesetzten Zeit]. The lake of Cirnitzer in the Duchy of Carniola is a remarkable instance of this. It has in its bottom a few holes, through which, however, it does not run off sooner than around St. James' [Day], when it then suddenly drains away with all the fishes and, after having left its bottom for months as dry as a good meadow or [und] a field, towards November suddenly appears again. This event of nature is very conceivably explained by the comparison with the diabetes of the hydraulics.

But in the cases before us it may be easily imagined that, as many lakes receive an afflux from the springs situated under their bottom, those [springs] which have their head in the neighbouring heights, after the effect of the subterraneous heat and evaporation has consumed the air in the cavities, which are their reservoirs, must thereby have been drawn into these [cavities] and even have furnished a powerful suction to carry in with [them] the lake which, after a re-established equilibrium of the air, sought its natural issue again. For that a lake, as was endeavoured [wollen] to be explained by the public accounts of the [lake] of Meiningen, is maintained by a subterraneous connection with the sea, because it has no external afflux by brooks, is exposed to a very palpable absurdity, as well on account of the laws of equilibrium opposing it, as likewise on account of the saltiness of the seawater. The earthquakes have this [das schon] as something common to themselves, that they put the sources of water into disorder. I could here produce [anfuhren], from the history of other earthquakes, a whole register of springs that stopped and broke out at another place, of spring-water gushing very high out of the earth and such like, but I [will] stick to my subject. It has been reported to us that in several parts of France [some] springs have stopped and others discharged an immense quantity of water. The Tsplitz well ran out, made the poor inhabitants [Tsplitzern] anxious, [and] returned first muddy, then red as blood, [and] at last natural and stronger than before. The coloration of the water in so many countries, even in the Kingdom of Fez and in France, is in my opinion to be ascribed to the mixture of vapours fallen into fermentation with sulphur and particles of iron, pressed through the layers of earth where the springs have their passage.

When this [mixture] penetrates into the interior parts of the cisterns which contain the source of the well- spring, [the mixture] either drives [the well-spring] out with greater force or, by pressing the water into other passages, it alters their efflux [Ausflus]. These are the chief curiosities of the history of the 1st November and of the agitation of the water, which is the rarest of its details. It is extremely credible to me that the concussions of the earth which happened close to the seashore, or of a [body of] water that has connection with [the sea], [e. g.] at Cork in Ireland, in Gluckstadt, and here and there in Spain, are for the most part to be attributed just to the pressure of the compressed seawater, whose force must be incredibly great when the violence with which it dashes is multiplied by the plane which it strikes, and I am of the opinion that the misfortune of Lisbon, as well as that of most of the [other] cities on the west coast of Europe, is to be ascribed to the situation which it had with regard to the moved part of the ocean, as its whole force, strengthened still more in the mouth of the Tejo by the narrowness of a bay, must extraordinarily shake the bottom. Let it be judged whether the concussions which were not sensible in the interior of the country could have been distinctly felt only in the cities which lie near the seashore, if the pressure of the water had not had a share in them.

The last phenomenon of this great event is still remarkable, as a considerable time, namely, from 1 [hour] to 11/2 hours after the earthquake, a dreadful accumulation of the water in the ocean and a swelling up of the Tejo, which alternately rose 6 feet higher than the highest flood and soon after fell almost as much lower than the lowest ebb, were seen. This motion of the sea, which took place a considerable time after the earthquake and after the amazing pressure of the water, also completed the destruction of the city of Setobal by rising above its remains, and totally ruined what the concussion had spared. When one has previously formed a just conception of the violence of the seawater pushed forward by the moved bottom of the sea, he may easily represent to himself that it must, after its pressure has extended itself through all the immense regions around, return with power. The time of its return depends on the great area in which it acted around it, and its ebullition, chiefly near the shores, must according to that have also been just as terrible.*

The Earthquake of the 18th November.

From the 17th to the 18th of this month, the public accounts gave notice of a considerable earthquake on the coasts as well of Portugal as of Spain and in Africa. On the 17th at 12 o'clock [Mittags] it was felt at Gibraltar near the straits of the Mediterranean Sea, and towards the evening at Whitehaven in Yorkshire in England. [On] the 17th [and] on the 18th it was already in the [then] English colonies of America. On the same 18th it was also violently felt in the neighbourhood of Aquapendente and della Grotta in Italy.

In the harbour of Husum this ebullition of the water was also perceived between 12 and 1, therefore about an hour later than the first shock of the water in the North Sea.

As also at Glowson in the county of Hertford, where with a violent noise it opened an abyss, in which is contained very deep water.

The Earthquake of the th December.

According to the testimony of the public accounts, Lisbon suffered no shocks since the 1st November so violent as those of the th December. This [earthquake] was felt on the southern coasts of Spain, on those of France, through the mountains of Switzerland, Schwaben, and Tyrol as far as Bavaria. It ranged from southwest to northeast about
300 German miles, and, keeping in the direction of that chain of mountains which runs along the greatest height of the terra firma of Europe according to its length, did not extend itself much sidewards. The most careful geographers, Waren, Buffon, [and] Lulof, observe that, just as all land which extends more in length than in breadth is crossed in the direction of its length by a principal mountain [Hauptgebirge], so [also] the chief tract of the mountains of Europe from a head stock [Hauptstamme], namely the Alps, extends towards the west through the southern provinces of France, through the middle of Spain to the utmost shore of Europe towards the west [gegen Abend], though it shoots out on the way considerable collateral branches, and in like manner to the east, through the Tyrolese and other less considerable mountains, unites [zusammen stsst] at last with the Carpathian [mountains]. The earthquake ran through [these in] this direction on the same day. If the time of the concussion of every place were accurately noted, then the velocity might in some measure be estimated and the situation of the first inflammation in all probability determined, but the accounts agree so little, that with regard to them nothing can be relied upon. I have already mentioned elsewhere that the earthquakes, when they extend themselves, commonly keep the tract of the highest mountains, and indeed, through their whole extent, even if these [mountains] degrade themselves the more, the more they approach the seashore. The direction of long rivers denotes very well the direction of the mountains, when between them rows of the same [i. e. of rivers] run near each other, as they run on into the lowest part of a long valley.

This law of the extension of earthquakes is not an affair of speculation or of judgment, but is some- thing that is known by the observation of many earthquakes. The testimonies of Ray, Buffon, Gentil, etc. must therefore be adhered to. But this law has of itself so much inner probability, that it also must easily acquire assent from itself. When one reflects that the openings whereby the subterraneous fire seeks vent [Ausgang] are nowhere else than in the summits of the mountains, that gulfs casting out flames are never perceived in the plains, that in the countries where earthquakes are powerful and frequent, most of the mountains have wide mouths that serve to eject the fire, and that, as to our European mountains, roomy cavities, which are no doubt connected, are nowhere else discovered but in them; [and] when the conception of the generation of all these subterranean vaults above spoken of, is applied to these, then no difficulty will be found in the representation, how the inflammation, chiefly under the chain of mountains which run through the length of Europe, can meet with open and free passages, in order to extend itself quicker therein than towards other regions. Even the continuation of the earthquake of the 18th November from Europe to America under the bottom of a wide sea is to be sought in the connection of the chain of mountains, which [chain], though in the continuation it grows so low as to be covered by the sea, nevertheless also remains the same mountain, for we know that as many mountains are to be met with in the bottom of the ocean as upon the land; and in this manner the Azores Islands, that lie half way between Portugal and North America, must be placed in this connection.

The Earthquake of the 26th December.

After the incension [Erhitzung] of the mineral substances had penetrated the main trunk [Hauptstamm] of the highest mountains of Europe, namely the Alps, it also opened for itself the narrower passage under the row of mountains which runs rectangularly from south to north, and extends itself in the direction of the Rhine, which, like all rivers in general, occupies a long valley between two rows of hills, from Switzerland to the North Sea. It shook on the west side of the river the provinces of Alsace, Lorraine, the electorate of Cologne, Brabant, and Picardy, and on the east side Cleves, a part of Westphalia, and probably even a few countries lying on this side of the Rhine, of which the accounts have not mentioned in detail. It evidently kept a tract parallel to the direction of this great river and extended itself not far from it towards the sides. It may be asked how it can accord with the above that it [the earthquake] penetrated as far as into the Netherlands, which are without any remarkable mountains. But it is enough that a country is in an immediate connection with certain rows of mountains and is considered as a continuation of them, in order to carry on the subterraneous inflammation under this otherwise low ground, for it is certain that then the chain of cavities likewise extends itself under it, in the same manner as it continues even under the bottom of the sea, as aforesaid.

Of the Intervals that pass between some Earthquakes following one another.

When the succession of the concussions that have happened after one another is contemplated with attention, then, if one dares to be willing to conjecture, a period might be discovered [herausbringen] in which the inflammation broke out anew after an intervening cessation. We find after the 1st November a very violent concussion in Portugal on the th as also on the 18th as it extended towards England, Italy, Africa, and even as far as to America on the 27th [we find] a strong earthquake on the southern coasts of Spain, chiefly in Malaga. From this time it continued 13 days, till it on the th December ran through [traf] the whole tract from Portugal as far as to Bavaria from southwest towards northeast, and since this [time], at the expiration of 18 days, namely, the 26th to the 27th December, it shook the breadth of Europe from south to north,* so that, when that time which it took to penetrate into the bowels [Innerste] of the mountains of our terra firma, and on the th December to move the Alps and the whole length of their chain, is assumed, in general a pretty exact period of or twice days has passed between the repeated inflammations. I do not produce this with a view [zu dem Ende] of concluding anything from it, because the accounts are far too little authentic for that [purpose], but in similar cases in order to give occasion to more accurate observation and reflection. I shall here adduce but something in general of the concussions reciprocally remitting and recommencing. Mr. Bouguer, one of the deputies of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris to Peru, had the inconvenience of living in this country near a fire-spewing mountain, whose thundering noise allowed him no rest. The observation which he made on this [occasion] might give him some satisfaction for [enduring] that [experience.]

On the 21st it was very violent in Lisbon, on the 23rd in the mountains of Roussillon, and [it] continued there till the 27th. From this it may be [ist] seen that it began again from the southwest and indeed required a much longer time to extend. And when the place of incension, which is clear from the whole course of the earthquake, is placed in the ocean of Portugal towards the west, then its beginning is tolerably connected with the period in hand. he remarked that the mountain was always quiet at equal intervals, and its ragings followed one another in an orderly manner with exchanged points of rest. The remark Mariotte made on a limekiln which was kindled and sometimes ejected the air out of an open window, sometimes drew it back again, whereby it in some measure imitated the respiration of animals, has a great similarity with this, both depending upon the following causes. When the subterraneous fire inflames [in Entzundung gerSth], it forces [stsst] all the air out of the cavities around it. Where this air, which is filled with the igneous parts, now finds an opening, e. g. in the mouth of a fire-spewing mountain, there it then rushes [fShrt] out, and the mountain casts out flames [Feuer]. But as soon as the air is driven away from the area of the hearth of inflammation, the inflammation remits, for without the access of air all fire extinguishes; afterwards the air which was driven away [comes] back again to its place and reignites [weckt] the extinguished fire, since the cause which had expelled it ceases[.] [I]n like manner the eruptions of a fire-spewing mountain vary regularly at certain intervals after each other. It is the same [Eben die Bewandtnis hat es] with the subterraneous inflammations, even where the expanded air can find no issue through the clefts of the mountains. For when the inflammation begins at a place in the cavities of the earth, it forces the air with violence in a great area into all the passages of the subterranean vaults that are connected therewith.

At this moment the fire chokes for want of air. And just as soon as this expansive power of the air remits, that [air], which was diffused through all the cavities, returns with great force and blows up [facht ... an] the smothered fire into a new earthquake. It is remarkable that Vesuvio, which, when the fermentations in the bowels of the earth began well, was put in motion and set on fire by the issue of the air forced through his throat, suddenly remitted a short time there- after, when the earthquake happened at Lisbon; for all the air standing in any connection with these vaults, and even that which is situated above the summit of Vesuvio, rushed [drang] through all the channels to the fire-hearth of the inflammation, where the diminution of the expansive power of the air allowed it access. What an astonishing object! To represent to one's self a chimney which, by air holes that are 200 [German] miles distance from it, furnishes itself with a draught! It is also the very same cause, which must produce in the vaults of the earth subterranean gales, whose force, if the situation and connection of the cavities were suitable to their extension, would far exceed everything we perceive upon the surface of the earth. The noise that in the progress of an earthquake is heard [verspurt] under the feet is probably to be attributed to no other cause than just this. From this we may presume with probability that not just all earthquakes are occasioned by the inflammation's happening directly under the ground which is shaken; but that the fury of this subterraneous storm may put in motion the vault that is above them, of which will be the less doubted when one reflects: that a much denser air than that which is found upon the surface of the earth may by far more sudden causes than these be put in motion and, strengthened between passages that impede its extending, exercise an unheard-of power. It may likewise be presumed that the slight waver of the ground in the greater part of Europe during the violent inflammation which happened in the earth on the 1st November is perhaps to be derived from nothing but this violently agitated subterraneous air, which like a violent gale gently shook the ground that opposed its diffusion.

Of the Hearth of the subterraneous Inflammation, and the Places which are subjected to the most [frequent] and most dangerous Earthquakes.

By the comparison of the time we learn [ersehen] that the place of incension of the earthquake of the 1st November was in the bottom of the sea. The Tejo that already swelled before the shake, the sulphur which the mariner with the plumb-line brought up from the shaken bottom, and the violence of the concussion which [the sailors] felt, confirm it. The history of former earthquakes makes it likewise clearly known that the most frightful concussions have always happened in the bottom of the sea, and next to this at the places which lie near the seashore or not far removed from it. As a proof of the former I produce [fuhre] the raging fury, with which the subterraneous inflammation has frequently raised up new islands from the bottom of the sea and, e. g. in the year 1720, near the island St. Michael, one of the Azores, from a depth of sixty fathoms threw up, by an ejection of matter from the bottom of the sea, an island, which is 1 mile long and elevated some fathoms above the [surface of] the sea. The island near Santorino in the Mediterranean Sea, which in our century in the presence of several persons rose [in die Hshe kam] from the bottom of the sea, and many other examples, which I pass over in order to avoid [wegen] prolixity, are unexceptionable proofs of this. How often do not seamen suffer[, so to say,] a seaquake; and in some regions, chiefly in the vicinity of certain islands, the sea is plentifully filled with pumice and other sorts of ejections of a fire broken out through the bottom of the ocean. The observation of the numerous concussions of the bottom of the sea is naturally [naturlicher Weise] connected with the question: Why of all places of the terra firma none are subjected to more violent and more frequent earthquakes than those that lie not far from4 the seashore.

This latter proposition has an indubitable correctness: let us run over the history of earthquakes, and we shall find innumerable misfortunes happen through earthquakes to cities or countries which are near the seashore, but very few and those of little consequence that are perceived in the middle of the terra firma. Ancient history already informs us of dreadful devastations, which this evil [Unheil] has perpetrated upon the seacoasts of Asia Minor or Africa. But neither among them nor among the more modern [neuern] do we find considerable concussions in the heart of great countries. Italy, which is a peninsula, most of the islands of all the seas, that part of Peru which lies near the Seashore, suffer the greatest attacks of this evil [ubels]. And in our days all the western and southern coasts of Portugal and Spain have been shaken far more than the interior [parts] of the terra firma. Of both questions I give the following solution.

Of all the continuous cavities which are now under the uppermost crust of the earth, without doubt those which run under the bottom of the sea must be the narrowest, because there the continued bottom of the terra firma has sunken down to the greatest depth and must rest much lower upon its undermost basis than the places that lie towards the middle of the continent [Landes]. But it was known that in narrow cavities a kindled expansive matter must act more furiously [heftiger] around it than where it can extend itself. Besides, it is natural to believe that, as is not to be doubted of the subterraneous incension, the effervescing mineral and inflammable substances very often fall into fusion [werden ... in Flus gerathen sein], as the streams of brimstone and lava which are frequently poured from the fire- spewing mountains may show, and therefore, on account of the natural declivity of the bottom of the subterranean vaults, they [must] have always run towards the lowest cavities of the bottom of the sea, [and also] on account of the abundant [hSufigen] store of inflammable matter, more frequent and more powerful concussions must have here happened.

Mr. Bouguer conjectures correctly that the penetrating of the seawater by the opening of a few chinks in the bottom [of the sea] must put the mineral substances, naturally inclined to inflammation, into the most violent ebullition. For we know that nothing can put [fire-]heated minerals into a more amazing fury than the afflux of water, which the rage itself constantly augments, till its force extending itself on all sides prevents the further access of [the water] by ejecting all [sorts of] earthy substances and stopping up its opening. In my opinion, the extraordinary violence, with which a [stretch of] ground lying near the Seashore is shaken, stems in part very naturally from the weight wherewith the seawater loads its neighbouring bottom. For everybody easily perspects [sieht] that the force with which the subterraneous fire endeavours to raise up this vault, upon which such an astonishing load rests, must be very restrained and, as it finds for itself here no space for its extending, must turn its whole force towards the bottom of the dry land that is bound next to it.

Of the Direction, according to which the Ground is shaken by an Earthquake.

The direction according to which the earthquake extends into remote countries is different from that according to which the ground on which it exercises its power is shaken. When the uppermost covering of the hidden vault, wherein the inflamed matter expands itself, has an horizontal direction, it must be reciprocally elevated and depressed in a perpendicular posture, because there is nothing that can turn the motion more to one side than to another. But if [Ist aber] the layer of earth which constitutes the vault inclines to one side, then the shaking power of the subterranean fire forces it too upwards in an oblique direction towards the horizon, and the direction according to which the vacillation of the ground must constantly take place might be decreased, if that according to which the stratum of the earth slopes, under which is situated the gulf of fire, were always certainly known. The declivity of the uppermost surface of the shaken ground is no sure criterion of the oblique position, which the vault has in its whole thickness; for the layers of earth that lie above may form various bendings and hillocks, to which the undermost foundation by no means accommodates itself. Buffon is of the opinion: that all the different strata which are found upon the earth have for a base a universal fundamental rock [Grundfels], which covers from above all the close deep cavities, and some parts of which upon the summits of high mountains are commonly bare, where rain and gales have totally washed away the loose substance.

This opinion acquires great probability by what earthquakes make known. For a power raging in such a manner as earthquakes exercise would by the frequently renewed assaults have long ago destroyed and rubbed away any other than a rocky vault. Near the Seashore the declivity of this vault is without doubt inclined towards the sea, and therefore it slopes in that direction according to which the sea lies to the place. Near the bank of a great river it must be sloped in the direction where the flowing off of the stream goes for when one contemplates the tracts, very long and frequently surpassing some hundred miles, through which the rivers run on the terra firma without forming on the way standing pools or lakes: this uniform declivity cannot well be explained by anything but by that very [uberaus] firm foundation which, as it uniformly inclines to the bottom of the sea without manifold bendings inward, affords the river an oblique plain for running off. Hence it is to be presumed: that the vacillation of the ground, [upon which stands] a shaken city that lies near a great river, happens in the direction of this river, as in the Tejo from west and east [Abend und Morgen];* but of that which lies near the Seashore [the vacillation happens] in the direction according to which this inclines to the sea. I have elsewhere mentioned what the situation of the ground may contribute to it, when an earthquake happens, totally destroying a city whose principal streets run in the same direction as the ground slopes. This remark is not a sally [Einfall] of mere conjecture; it is a matter of experience.

Gentil, who had occasion to collect excellent knowledge of a great many earthquakes, gives notice of this as an observation which is confirmed by many examples: that when the direction according to which the ground is shaken runs parallel with the direction according to which the city is built, it is quite overthrown, whereas when that [former direction] intersects this [latter direction] rectangularly, less damage happens.

Just as a river has a gradual descent [abhSngende Schiefe] towards the sea, so have the countries on the sides a declivity to its bed. If the latter is valid even of the stratum of the whole earth, and this in the greatest depths has just such a slope, so also the direction of the concussion of the earth is determined by these. The history of the Royal Academy of Paris gives an account: that when Smyrna, which lies near the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, was shaken in the year 1688, all the walls which had the direction from east to west were thrown down, but those that were built from north to south remained standing. The shaken ground makes, that is, a few vacillations, and moves by the greatest [degree] everything that is erected upon it according to the length in the direction of the vacillation. All bodies which have a great mobility, e. g. girandoles in churches, during earthquakes [usually] point out [pflegen ... anzuzeigen] the direction according to which the shocks happen, and are far surer criteria for a city to determine from them the position at which it must be built, than the somewhat more dubious characteristics6 already mentioned.

Of the Connection of Earthquakes with the Seasons.

The French academist Mr. Bouguer, [whom we have] already frequently quoted, mentions in his voyage to Peru that, though earthquakes happen often enough in that country at all seasons, nevertheless the most dreadful and the most frequent are felt in the autumnal months towards the end of the year. This observation is abundantly confirmed not only in America, as, besides the destruction of the city Lima years ago and the sinking of another [city] equally populous in the preceding century, many instances of it have been noticed, but also in our part of the world, besides the last earthquake [(of 1755)] we find many examples in history of concussions and ejections of fire-spewing mountains, which have taken place more frequently in the autumnal months than in any other season. Does not a common cause occasion this agreement[?] And on which [cause] can one cast a more suitable conjecture than on the rains which continue in Peru in the long valley between the Cordillera mountains from September up to April, and which are likewise the most frequent with us during autumn?

We know that, in order to occasion a subterraneous conflagration [Brand], nothing is necessary except to put in fermentation the mineral substances in the cavities of the earth. But this is done by water, when it has penetrated into the clefts of the mountains and run into the deep passages. The rains first stimulated the fermentation, which in the middle of October forced out of the bowels [Inwendigen] of the earth so many strange vapours. But these drew from the atmosphere still more humid influxes, and the water, which penetrated through the chinks of the rocks into the most profound [tiefsten] vaults, finished the inflammation that was begun.

Of the Influence of Earthquakes on the Atmosphere.

We have above seen an example of the effects which the convulsions of the earth have on our air. It is to be believed that more phenomena of nature depend upon the eruptions of subterraneous heated vapours than one quite commonly imagines. It would scarcely be possible that such an irregularity and so little harmony would be met with in the weather conditions if extraneous causes did not sometimes step into our atmosphere and put its proper alterations into disorder. Can indeed a probable ground be conceived, why, though the course of the sun and of the moon is always fixed [gebunden] by the self-same laws, [and] though water and earth, if taken in the gross, always remain the same [uberein], yet the course of the weather conditions, even in a procession [lasting] many years, almost always turns out different? Since the unfortunate concussion and a little before it we have had, through[out] all our part of the world, so variable a weather condition that one can be excused if one casts a conjecture on the earthquakes on that account.

It is true, there has formerly been quite warm weather in winter, without any preceding earthquake; but is one then sure that a fermentation in the bowels of the earth has not very often forced vapours through the clefts of the rocks, the slits of the layers of earth, and even through their loose substance, which may have then drawn after them considerable alterations in the atmosphere? Musschenbrsk, after having observed that only in this century and indeed, since 1716, a very clear aurora borealis [Nord- lichter] has been seen in Europe and as far as in its southern countries, holds the probable cause of these alterations in the atmosphere to be that the fire-spewing mountains and the earthquakes, which some years before had raged violently, threw out inflammable and volatile fumes which, by the natural deflux [Abflus] of the highest air, accumulated towards the north, and produced the fiery phenomena of the air which have since been so frequently seen, and that in all probability [such phenomena] must consume [these fumes] by degrees, till new exhalations replace the deficiency again.

According to these principles let us investigate whether it be not conformable to nature that an altered weather condition, like what we have had, may be a consequence of that catastrophe. The clear weather condition of winter, and the cold that accompanies it, are not merely a consequence of the great distance of the sun from our vertex at this season; for we frequently feel that, notwithstanding [that distance], the air may be very temperate; but the draught of air from the north, which at times is also deflected into an east wind, brings us a chilled air from the frigid zone [Eiszone] that covers our waters with ice and lets us feel a part of the winter of the North Pole. This draught of air from the north to the south is so natural in the autumnal and winter months, unless foreign causes interrupt it, that in the ocean at a sufficient distance from all terra firma, this north- or northeast wind is uninterruptedly met with the whole time throughout [these months]. It also stems quite naturally from the effect of the sun, which then rarefies the air above the southern hemisphere, and thereby occasions the draught from the northern: so that this must be considered as a constant law, which by the nature of the countries may well in some measure be altered, but not annulled.

Now if subterraneous fermentations eject heated vapours somewhere in the countries that lie towards our south: then these [vapours] in the beginning will thereby diminish the height of the atmosphere in the region where they rise, [so] that they weaken its expansive power, and occasion downpours, hurricanes, etc. But afterwards [in der Folge] this part of the atmosphere, as it is loaded with so many fumes, moves the neighbouring [part] by its weight and occasions a draught of air from south to north. However, as the effort of the atmosphere in our climate [to move the air] at this season from north to south is natural, both these motions opposing one another will stop themselves, and there will follow, first, on account of the fumes [being] forced together, a gloomy, humid air, yet a high state of the barometer* will follow from it as well, because the air compressed by the conflict of two winds must occasion a high [barometric] column; and one thereby understands [finden lernen] the apparent irregularity of the barometer, when, notwithstanding the high position of the [mercury], there is rainy weather, for then this humidity of the air is just an effect of two currents of air opposing one another, which collect the fumes and yet can render the air considerably denser and heavier.

As has been, during this humid winter weather condition, almost constantly noticed.

I cannot pass over in silence: that on the frightful day of All Saints the magnets in Augsburgh threw off their load, and the magnetic needles were thrown into disorder. Boyle already related that the like once happened in Naples after an earthquake. We know too little of the hidden nature of the magnet to be able to specify a reason [Grund] for this phenomenon.

Of the Use of Earthquakes.

One startles to see a rod of correction of men so frightful commended on the score of utility. I am certain that, in order to be delivered but of the fear and danger which are combined with it, [men] would willingly give it up. Of such a nature are we men. After we have laid an unjust claim to all the agrZmens6 of life, we are not disposed [wollen] to purchase any advantages with charges. We desire that the earth might be so made: that one could wish to live upon it forever. Beyond this we imagine that, if Providence had asked us [to cast] our vote on the matter, we would have better governed everything for our advantage. Thus we wish, e. g. to have the rain in our power, in order that we might divide it throughout the [whole] year according to our convenience, and always enjoy agreeable days between the cloudy ones. But we forget the springs, which we nevertheless cannot do without, and which could not at all be maintained in such a manner.

Likewise, we are ignorant of the benefit that even the causes which frighten us in the earthquakes may procure for us, and yet would willingly banish knowledge of them. As men who were born in order to die, [why] can we not bear that a few should die in an earthquake, and as [men]0 who are strangers here [below] and possess no property, [why] are we inconsolable when goods are lost, which would have shortly been abandoned by the universal way of nature of itself[?] It may be easily divined [rathen]: that when men build upon a ground which is filled with inflammable substances, sooner or later the whole magnificence of their building may fall to pieces5 by concussions; but must they then on that account be impatient over the ways of Providence? Were it not better to judge thus: It was necessary that earthquakes [should] sometimes happen upon the earth, but it was not necessary that we [should] build upon it gorgeous habitations? The inhabitants of Peru dwell in houses which are walled up only in lower altitudes, and the rest consist of reeds. Man must learn to accommodate himself to nature, but he would have [nature] to accommodate herself to him. Whatever damage the cause of earthquakes [may] have ever occasioned [erweckt] men on the one side, it can easily make it up with profit0 on the other side. We know that the warm baths, which in the process of time may perhaps have been serviceable to a considerable part of mankind for promoting health, owe their mineral property and heat to the very same causes from which happen in the bowels of the earth the inflammations that shake [in Bewegung setzen] it.

It has already been long presumed: that the ores in the mountains are a slow effect of the subterraneous heat which, by forming and boiling the metals in the heart [Mitte] of the rock by penetrating vapours, brings them to maturity by gradual effects. Our atmosphere, besides the coarse and inert [todten] substances which it contains in itself, also requires a certain active [wirksames] principle, volatile salts and parts that may enter into the composition of plants, in order to move and extricate them [from the former]. Is it not to be believed that the formations of nature, which constantly use a great part of them [i. e. of the salts], and the alterations that all matter ultimately suffers by dissolution and composition, would in time totally consume the most active particles, unless from time to time a new afflux took place? At least the earth grows always weaker [unkrSftiger] when it nourishes vigorous [krSftige] plants, but rest and rain restore it. But whence at last would come the corroborative [krSftige] matter, which is without an allied restoration, if a spring in another place did not supply its afflux? And this is probably the store of the most active and most volatile substances which the subterranean vaults contain, a part of which they diffuse from time to time upon the surface of the earth. I have still to observe: that Hales by the fumigation of sulphur purified [befreiet] the prisons, and in general all places whose air was infected by animal exhalations, with very good results. 6

The fire-spewing mountains throw out into the atmosphere an immense quantity of sulphureous vapours, [so] who knows [whether] the animal exhalations with which [the atmosphere] is loaded would not in [progress of] time become noxious, if those [mountains] did not furnish a powerful [krSftiges] remedy against it. Finally, the warmth in the bowels of the earth seems to me to afford a stronger proof of the efficacy and of the great use of the inflammations that happen in profound [tiefen] vaults. By daily experiences it is made out: that in great, yes, in the greatest depths, at which men have just arrived in the internal parts [dem Innern] of the mountains, there is a continual warmth, which cannot possibly be attributed to the effect of the sun. Boyle cites a considerable number of testimonies, from which it is evident that in all deep shafts, first of all, the upper part is much colder than the external air, when it is in the summertime, but the deeper one goes down, the warmer one finds the region, so that in the greatest depths the workmen are forced during their work to pull off [their] clothes. Everybody easily comprehends[, secondly,] that, as the heat of the sun penetrates but to a very small depth in the earth, it cannot have more [than] the smallest effect in the lowest of all vaults; and that the warmth situated there depends on a cause which prevails only in the greatest depths, [and] is besides to be perceived from the diminished warmth, the higher one ascends [von unten hinauf kommt], even in the summertime.

Boyle, after having carefully compared and examined the experiences that were made [available], concludes very rationally: that in the undermost cavities, at which we cannot arrive, there must be constant inflammations to be met with, and an inextinguishable fire that communicates its warmth to the upper crust is thereby kept up. If this [fire] conducts itself thus, as one cannot abstain from granting, will we not have to expect the most advantageous effects from this subterranean fire, which always furnishes the earth with a mild warmth at the time when the sun withdraws his [influence] from us, [and] which is in the position to promote6 the vegetation [Trieb] of plants and the economy of the kingdom of nature? And with the appearance of so much usefulness, can the disadvantage which arises to the human species from a few eruptions of this [fire] eclipse the gratitude we owe Providence for all his institutions? The grounds I have adduced for encouraging [such gratitude] are indeed not of the nature of those which afford the greatest conviction and certainty. But even conjectures deserve to be assumed, when their object is to move men to the desire of being grateful to the Supreme [hschste] Being who, even when he chastises, is worthy of reverence and love.

Observation.

I have mentioned above that earthquakes force out sulphurous evaporations through the vault of the earth. The last accounts of the shafts in the mountains of Saxony confirm this by a new example. At present they are found so full of sulphurous vapours that the workmen must leave them. The event at Tuam in Ireland, where a luminous atmospheric phenomenon appeared upon the sea in the form of pendants and flags, which altered their colours by degrees and at last diffused a clear light, on which followed a violent shock of an earthquake, is a new confirmation of this. The alteration of the colours from the darkest blue to red and ultimately to a clear white appearance is to be ascribed to the broken-out, at first very rarefied, evaporation that is gradually augmented by a more frequent afflux of more fumes which, as is known in natural philosophy [Naturwissenschaft], must pass through the degrees of light from the blue colour to the red, and finally to a white appearance.

All these preceded the shock. It is also proof: that the hearth of inflammation was in the bottom of the sea, as the earthquake was chiefly felt near the Seacoast. If one chose to extend farther the observations on the places of the earth where the most frequent and the heaviest shakes have ever been felt, then it might still be added: that the western coasts have always suffered many more attacks of [earthquakes] than the eastern. In Italy, in Portugal, in South America, yes, lately even in Ireland, experience has confirmed this agreement. Peru, which lies along [an] the western seashore of the new world, has almost daily concussions, whereas Brazil, that has the ocean towards the east, feels nothing of them. If one had a mind [will] to conjecture a few causes of this strange analogy, then a Gautier, a painter, might well be forgiven when he looked for the cause of all earthquakes in the rays of the sun, the source [Quelle] of his colours and of his art, and imagined that these, by striking stronger on the western coast, also turn even our great globe round from west to east, and thereby just these coasts would be troubled with so many shakes.

But in a sound natural philosophy such a thought [Einfall] scarcely merits a refutation. The ground of this law seems to me to be in conjunction with another, of which at the time no sufficient explanation has yet been given: namely, that the western and southern coasts of almost all countries are more steeply sloped than the eastern and northern, which is confirmed as well by looking at6 the map as by the accounts of Dampier, who found them almost universally [so] in all his voyages. When the bendings of the terra firma are derived from the sinkings-in, deeper and more [numerous] cavities must be to be met with in the countries [Gegenden] of the greatest slope, than where the crust of the earth has but a gentle declivity. But, as we have seen above, this has a natural connection with the concussions of the earth. Concluding Contemplation.

The sight of so many miseries, as the last catastrophe has made among our fellow-citizens, ought to excite philanthropy and make us feel a part of the misfortune which has happened to them with such severity. But it is a gross mistake when such fates are always considered as destined judgments which the desolated cities meet with on account of their crimes [ubelthaten], and when we contemplate as the aim of God's vengeance these unfortunate persons, upon whom his justice pours out all its punishments of wrath [Zornschalen]. This mode of judgment is a blameable audacity, which presumes to perspect [einzusehen] the designs of the Divine decrees and to interpret according to its insights [Einsichten]. Man is infatuated so much with himself that he considers only himself as the sole object of the institutions of God, just as if these had no other aim than him alone, in order to regulate accordingly the measures in the government of the world. We know that the whole complex [Inbegriff] of nature is a worthy object of the Divine Wisdom and of its institutions. We are a part of them, and [yet we] want to be6 the whole. The rules of the perfection of nature in the gross [supposedly] must be taken into no contemplation, and everything must be set up merely in a proper relation to us.

What is conducive to convenience and to pleasure in the world exists, as [man] figures to himself, merely on our account, and nature makes [beginne] no alterations which [may] be any cause of inconvenience to men, except to chastise, to menace, or to wreak vengeance on them. We see, however, that innumerable villains die in peace, that earthquakes, without distinction of ancient or modern inhabitants, have ever shaken certain countries, that the Christian Peru as well as the pagan is moved [by earthquakes], and that many cities which can pretend to no preference in point of being irreprehensible remain free from this devastation from the beginning. Thus is man in the dark when he attempts to guess at the aims God has before [his] eyes in the government of the world. But we are in no uncertainty when it comes to the application, how we ought to use these ways of Providence conformably to his ends. Man was not born to build everlasting cottages upon this stage of vanity. Because his whole life has a far nobler aim, how beautifully attuned to it [are] all the devastations, which the inconstancy of the world shows even in those things that appear to us to be the greatest and the most important, in order to remind us: that the goods of the earth can furnish no satisfaction to our inclination for happiness! Far be it from me to insinuate herewith that man is left to an immutable fate of the laws of nature without regard to his peculiar advantages.

Just the same Supreme Wisdom, from whom the course of nature derives that accuracy which requires no amendment, has subordinated the inferior ends to the superior, and in the very designs in which he has often made the most weighty exceptions to the universal rules of nature, in order to attain the infinitely superior ends which are far elevated above all the means of nature, the leadership of the human species in the government of the world likewise prescribes laws even to the course of the things of nature. When a city or a country perceives the mischief wherewith the divine Providence alarms them or their neighbours: Is it then still doubtful what part they have to act in order to prevent the ruin that threatens them, and are the signs still ambiguous, which render comprehensible the designs to whose accomplishment all the ways of Providence concordantly either invite or instigate man? A prince who, prompted by a noble heart, is moved by these calamities of the human race to avert the miseries of war from those whom great [schwere] misfortunes threaten as well on all sides, is a beneficent instrument in the kind hand of God, and a gift which he bestows on the nations of the earth, whose value they never can estimate according to its greatness.