BOOK If.] History of Nature. 121 



the Poop of a Ship, being broken from the Rest, came down, 

 and with the Fall covered over the other Ruins. There is re- 

 ported another Conjecture byPherecydes, who was the Teacher 

 of Pythagoras; and the same was likewise of divine character; 

 for, by drawing Water out of a Well he both foresaw and 

 foretold an Earthquake there. Which, if they be true, how 

 far off, I pray you, may such Men seem to be from God, even 

 while they live upon Earth ? But I leave these Things free 

 for every Man to weigh according to his Judgment : and for 

 my own Part, I suppose that, without Doubt, the Winds are 

 the proper Cause. For the Earth never quakes but when 

 the Sea is still, and the Weather so calm that Birds, in their 

 flying, cannot hover in the Air; because all the Spirit which 

 should bear them up, is withdrawn : nor yet at any Time, but 

 after the Winds are laid ; namely, when the Blast is hidden 

 within the Veins and Caves of the Earth. Neither is this 

 Shaking in the Earth any other Thing than is Thunder in the 

 Cloud : nor the Chasm thereof aught else, but, like the Cleft 

 out of which the Lightning breaketh, when the Spirit enclosed 

 within struggleth and stirreth to go forth at Liberty. 



CHAPTER LXXX. 

 Of Chasms of the Earth. 



VARIOUSLY, therefore, the Earth is shaken, and thereupon 

 ensue wonderful Effects. In one Place the Walls of Cities 

 are laid prostrate : in another they are swallowed up in a deep 

 Chasm : here are cast up mighty Heaps of Earth ; there are 

 poured out Rivers of Water; sometimes Fire doth burst forth, 

 and hot Springs : and again the Course of Rivers is turned 

 away backward. There goeth before and cometh with it a 

 terrible Noise : one while a Rumbling more like the lowing 

 of Beasts : and then again it resembleth a Man's Voice, or 

 the clattering and rustling of Armour and Weapons; accord- 

 ing to the Quality of the Matter that receiveth the Noise, or 

 the Fashion either of the hollow Caverns within, or the 

 Cranny by which it passeth ; whilst in a narrow Way it 

 soundeth with a more slender Tone : and the same keepeth 

 an hoarse Din in winding Caves ; rebounding again in hard 



