EARTHQUAKES. 245 



thought it is not easy to see on what grounds. To 

 us it seems far more probable that Johnson heard with 

 natural wonder and awe of the destructive effects of 

 this fearful convulsion; and that for awhile he could 

 scarcely believe that the extent of the disaster had not 

 been exaggerated. It would be well if, indeed, the 

 powers of earthquakes were less tremendous than they 

 have been repeatedly shown to be. 'There is,' says 

 Humboldt, ' no other outward manifestation of force 

 known to us the murderous inventions of our own 

 race included through which in the brief period of a 

 few seconds or minutes, a larger number of human 

 beings have been destroyed than by earthquakes.' 

 Lightning and storm, war and plague, are but weak 

 and inefficient agents of destruction in comparison 

 with the earth's internal forces. 



And as earthquakes surpass all other phenomena as 

 agents of sudden destruction, so the impression which 

 they produce on those who for the first time experience 

 their effects is peculiarly and indescribably awful. Men 

 of reputed courage speak of a feeling of ' intolerable 

 dread' produced by the shocks of an earthquake, 'even 

 when unaccompanied by subterranean noises.' The 

 impression is not that of simple fear but a feeling of 

 absolute pain. The reason seems for awhile to have 

 lost the power of separating real from imaginary causes 

 of terror. The lower animals, also, are thrown into a 

 state of terror and distress. 'Swine and dogs,' says 

 Humboldt, ' are particularly affected by the pheno- 

 menon of earthquakes.' And he adds that ' the very 



