128 



THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER. 



the marks of ruin, convulsion, and disorder meet 

 the eje of the beholder. Evidences of these facts 



are to be found in the records of all intelligent 

 travellers and geologists who have visited Alpine 

 districts, or explored the subterraneous regions 

 of the earth ; of which I have already stated a 

 few instances, in the article of Geology, pp. 74, 

 75,77. These facts seem evidently to indicate 

 that the earth is not now in the same state in 

 which it originally proceeded from the hand of its 

 Creator ; for such a scene of disruption and de 

 rangement appears incompatible with that or 

 der, harmony, and beauty which are apparent 

 in the other departments of nature. We dare 

 not assert, that such terrible convulsions took 

 place by chance, or independent of the will of 

 the Creator; nor dare we insinuate, that they 

 were the effects of a random display of Al 

 mighty Power; and therefore, we are neces 

 sarily led to infer, that a moral cause, connected 

 with the conduct of the rational inhabitants of 

 the globe, must have existed, to warrant so 

 awful an interposition of divine power ; for 

 the fate of the animated beings which then 

 peopled the earth was involved in the conse 

 quences which must have attended this terri 

 ble catastrophe. The volume of revelation, 

 on this point, concurs with the deductions of 

 reason, and assigns a cause adequate to war 

 rant the production of such an extraordinary 

 effect. &quot; The wickedness of man was great 

 upon the earth ; the earth was filled with vio 

 lence; every purpose and desire of man s heart 

 was only evil continually. Man had frustrated 

 the end of his existence ; the earth was turned 

 into a habitation of demons ; the long period to 

 which his life was protracted only served to 

 harden him in his wickedness, and to enable 

 him to carry his diabolical schemes to their 

 utmost extent, till the social state of the hu 

 man race became a scene of unmixed depra 

 vity and misery. And the physical effects of 

 the punishment of this universal defection from 

 God are presented to out view in every land, 

 and will remain to all ages, as a visible me 

 morial that man las rebelled against the autho 

 rity of his Make-, 



2. The existence of Volcanoes, and the terri 

 ble ravages they produce, bear testimony to the 

 state of man as a depraved intelligence. A 

 volcano is a mountain, generally of an immense 

 gize, from whose summit issue fire, smoke, sul 

 phur, and torrents of melted lava, (see p. 66.) 

 Previous to an eruption, the smoke, which is 

 continually ascending from the crater, or open 

 ing in the top, increases and shoots up to an im 

 mense height ; forked lightning issues from the 

 ascending column; showers of ashes are thrown 

 oat to the distance of forty or fifty miles ; volleys 

 of red-hot stones are discharged to a great 

 neight in the air ; the sky appears thick and dark ; 



he luminaries of heaven disappear ; and these 



terrible forebodings are accompanied with thun* 

 der, lightning, frequent concussions of the earth, 

 and dreadful subterraneous bellowings. When 

 these alarming appearances have continued 

 sometimes four or five months, the lava begins to 

 make its appearance, either boiling over the top, 

 or forcing its way through the side of the moun 

 tain. This fiery deluge of melted minerals rolls 

 down the declivity of the mountain, forming a dis 

 mal flaming stream, sometimes fourteen miles 

 long, six miles broad, and 200 feet deep. In its 

 course, it destroys orchards, vineyards, cornfields, 

 and villages; and sometimes cities, containing 

 twenty thousand inhabitants, have been swallow 

 ed up and consumed. Several other phenomena, 

 of awful sublimity, sometimes accompany these 

 eruptions. In the eruption of Vesuvius, in 1794, 

 a shock of an earthquake was felt ; and, at the 

 same instant, a fountain of bright fire, attended 

 with the blackest smoke, and a loud report, was 

 seen to issue, and to rise to a great height from 

 the cone of the mountain ; and was soon suc 

 ceeded by fifteen other fiery fountains, all in a 

 direct line extending for a mile and a half down 

 wards. This fiery scene was accompanied with 

 the loudest thunder, the incessant reports of 

 which, like those of a numerous heavy artillery, 

 were attended by a continued hollow murmur, 

 similar to that of the roaring of the ocean during 

 a violent storm. The houses in Naples, at seven 

 miles distance, were for several hours in a con 

 stant tremor ; the bells ringing, and doors and 

 windows incessantly rattling and shaking. The 

 murmur of the prayers and lamentations of a 

 numerous population added to the horrors of the 

 scene. All travellers, who have witnessed these 

 eruptions, seem to be at a loss to find words 

 sufficiently emphatic to express the terrors of the 

 scene. &quot; One cannot form a juster idea,&quot; says 

 Bishop Berkley, &quot; of the noise emitted by the 

 mountain, than by imagining a mixed sound 

 made up of the raging of a tempest, the mur 

 mur of a troubled sea, and the roaring of thun 

 der and artillery, confused altogether. Though 

 we heard this at the distance of twelve miles, 

 yet it was very terrible.&quot; In 1744, the flames of 

 Cotopaxi, in South America, rose 3,000 feet 

 above the brink of the crater, and its roarings 

 were heard at the distance of six hundred mile. 1 !. 

 &quot; At the port of Guayaquil, 150 miles distant 

 from the crater,&quot; says Humboldt, &quot; we heard, 

 day and night, the noise of this volcano, like 

 continued discharges of a battery, and we dis 

 tinguished these tremendous sounds even on the 

 Pacific ocean.&quot; 



The ravages produced by volcanoes are in 

 proportion to the terror they inspire. In the 

 eruption of ^Etna, in 1669, the stream of lava 

 destroyed, in 40 days, the habitations of 27,000 

 persons ; and of 20,000 inhabitants of the city 

 of Catania, only 3,000 escaped. In the yeai 

 79, the celebrated cities of Pompeii and Hercu- 



