QUINTERO. 323 



Chilena washerwoman lias decidedly the advantage, in elegance of 

 appearance, over our ladies of the suds at home ; but whether it be 

 for the advantage of the community that the daughters of the judges 

 and justices should so employ themselves, T leave to graver persons 

 to determine; — though I think there is something against it in a 

 statute of the first year of George the Third's reign, wherein the 

 independence of judges is considered as necessary to their upright- 

 ness. But this is a long way from England. 



Dec. 2d. — We have felt but one shock early this morning. I 

 remember exclaiming on the apathy of the people of Carracas, who 

 returned to rebuild their houses when the earthquakes returned only 

 once in six hours, or some such period ; and that was after several 

 months passed without any considerable convulsion. But man is 

 the creature of habit ; and though it is scarcely a fortnight since all 

 around us, " temple and tower, fell to the ground," and though we 

 ourselves are living in tents and huts pitched round our ruined dwell- 

 ing, we pursue our business, and even our amusements, as if nothing 

 had happened, and lie clown to sleep as confidently as if we had not 

 lately seen the earth whereon we repose reeling to and fro. We 

 have time too to turn to history and poetry, to compare the descrip- 

 tions of men who did not feel the fearful times with the passing facts. 

 One of these appears to me to have superior beauty and truth ■ 

 Childe Harold is telling of the day of Thrasimene, when, in the fury 

 of the battle, " an earthquake reeled unheededly away." 



" The earth to them was as a rolling bark 

 Which bore them to eternity ; they saw 

 The ocean round, but had no time to mark 

 The motions of their vessel ; Nature's law, 

 In them suspended, reck'd not of the awe 

 Which reigns when mountains tremble, and the birds 

 Plunge in the clouds for- refuge, and withdraw 

 From their down-toppling nests, and bellowing herds 

 Stumble o'er heaving plains, and man's dread hath no words." 



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