i EARTHQUAKES UNIVERSAL 225 



which thus assails us. Fate makes a circuit, paying 

 a second visit to places she has long passed over. 

 On some places her attacks are more rare, more 12 

 frequent on some. Nothing is suffered to be quite 

 exempt from injury. Not merely we men, whose 

 life is frail and fleeting, but cities too, and the earth s 

 coasts and shores, yea, the very sea falls under 

 bondage to fate. And in face of this we promise 

 ourselves permanence in the boons fortune bestows ! 

 we suppose there will be stability and endurance in 

 happiness, whose fickleness is greatest of all things 

 on earth ! While men promise themselves all things 13 

 in perpetuity, it never enters their thoughts that the 

 very earth on which we stand is not permanent. The 

 flaws of the ground are to be found everywhere ; 

 they are not peculiar to Campania or Tyre or 

 Achaia. The earth coheres imperfectly, it suffers 

 breach from many causes ; permanent as a whole, 

 it is subject to collapse in its parts. 



II 



WHAT am I doing ? I had promised to offer 

 comfort in face of danger, and lo ! I threaten its 

 terrors on all sides. I tell you that there can 

 be no assured peace in what can suffer or cause 

 destruction. But that very fact I regard as a solace, 

 and, indeed, the most powerful of all. Fear is but 

 folly when there is no escape from it. Philosophy 

 delivers the wise from fear ; even the unlearned 

 may derive great confidence from despair. You 

 must, therefore, regard the words addressed to those 

 amazed by sudden captivity amid fire and foe as 

 addressed to the whole human race : 



The one safety of the conquered is to hope for none. 



Q 



