THE EARTH. 99 



and ivory were every where common ; and the fruits of the 

 earth offered themselves without cultivation. The arts and the 

 courage of the inhabitants were not inferior to the happiness of 

 their situation ; and they were frequently known to make con- 

 quests, and overrun the continents of Europe and Asia." The 

 imagination of the poetical philosopher riots in the description 

 of the natural and acquired advantages, which they long enjoyed 

 in this charming region. " If," says he, " we compare that 

 country to our own, ours will appear a mere wasted skeleton, 

 when opposed to it. Their mountains, to the very tops, were 

 clothed with fertility, and poured down rivers to enrich the plains 

 below. " 



However, all these beauties and benefits were destroyed 

 in one day by an earthquake sinking the earth, and the sea 

 overwiielming it. At present not the smallest vestiges of 

 such an island are to be found ; Plato remains as the only 

 authority for its existence ; and philosophers dispute about its 

 frituatioiu It is not tor me to enter into the controversy, when 

 there appears but little probability to support the fact ; and, in- 

 deed, it would be useless to run back nine thousand years in 

 search of difficulties, as we are surrounded with objects that more 

 closely affect us, and that demand admiration at our very doors. 

 When I consider, as Lactantius suggests, the various vicissitudes 

 of nature ; lands swallowed by yawning earthquakes, or over- 

 whelmed in the deep ; rivers and lakes disappearing, or dried 

 away ; mountains levelled into plains ; and plains swelling op 

 into mountains ; I cannot help regarding this earth as a place of 

 very little stability ; as a transient abode of still more transitory 

 beings. 



CHAP. XII. 



OF MOUNTAINS. 



Having at last, in some measure, emerged from the deeps of 

 the earth, we come to a scene of greater splendour ; the conteni- 

 plation of its external appearance. In this survey, its mom-. 



i2 



