244 THE BORDERLAND OF SCIENCE. 



Next we hear of an earthquake in Somersetshire, then 

 in Malta, then in Egypt, then at Formosa, then in 

 St. Salvador ; and now, almost as I write, the bed of 

 the Pacific is violently shaken, and hundreds of the 

 inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands are destroyed by a 

 violent uprush of molten matter. During all this 

 time Vesuvius has continued in violent eruption. 



Thus it has happened that we have heard a great 

 deal lately of certain speculations recently ventilated 

 by an American philosopher which threaten the earth 

 with complete annihilation. According to these views 

 there is one great danger to which we are at all times 

 liable the risk, namely, that some large volcanic vent 

 should be formed beneath the bosom of ocean. Through 

 this vent the sea would rush into the interior of the 

 earth, and being forthwith converted into steam by the 

 intense subterranean heat, would rend the massive shell 

 on which we live into a thousand fragments. 



Whether it is possible or not that such an event as 

 this should take place, I shall not here stay to inquire. 

 Let it suffice that the risk if there be any is no 

 greater now that it has been any time during thousands 

 of past years. 



But certainly, if there is any source from which the 

 inhabitants of the earth may reasonably dread the 

 occurrence of widely devastating catastrophes, it is from 

 earthquakes. It is related that for full six months 

 after the great earthquake of Lisbon, Dr. Johnson 

 refused to believe in the occurrence of so terrible a 

 catastrophe. He spoke half jestingly,' Macaulay 



