xxix STATUES AND KINGDOMS SPLIT 263 



One sees whole regions torn from their place, and 

 what was once contiguous, now lying beyond the sea. 

 One sees a separation of cities and nations when a 

 part of nature is roused by internal motion, or the sea 

 or fire or air has assailed some point ; for their force 

 is marvellous, since it has a boundless reserve from 

 which to draw. Though its rage is vented at but one 4 

 point, yet it has the world's whole strength to rein- 

 force its wrath. Thus it was that the sea tore away 

 Spain from the mainland of Africa. Thus it was 

 by the flood, which the greatest of poets have 

 celebrated, that Sicily was cut away from Italy. The 

 movements that proceed from depth have much more 

 force. They are more energetic, as their effort is 

 concentrated upon a narrow area. Enough has 

 now been said to show what mighty deeds these 

 earthquakes have wrought and what wondrous sights 

 they have displayed. 



XXX 



WHY, then, should one be amazed that the bronze i 

 of a single statue is burst, and that, not even solid, 

 but hollow and thin ? as likely as not air in seeking 

 an escape has got enclosed in it. And does not 

 every one know that buildings are sometimes ob- 

 served in time of earthquake to split at the corners 

 and be united again ? Other things badly set upon 

 their base, and loosely and carelessly put together 

 by the workmen, have been known to be welded 

 firmly together by the repeated shaking of the 

 earthquake. If it splits whole walls and whole 2 

 houses, and rends the sides of great towers, which 

 are constructed of solid masonry, and scatters the 

 piles that support the foundations of great works, 



