Profefor WiLL1AMs on Earthquakes. $91: 
might have been expected, —thefe are fubmitted to the judg- 
ment of others. Hypothefes may be of ufe to put us upon 
further enquiry, and a more critical examination ; but are never 
to be received, any further than they are "Rp by proper 
evidence. . 
GENERAL REFLECTIONS on EARTHQUAKES. 
THE preceding Accounts, OBSERVATIONS and Cox- 
JECTURES, have been confined to the earthquakes of New- 
England.—But they will naturally lead us to fome GENERAL 
REFLECTIONS on the nature, ufe and effects of thefe formi- 
dable phenomena. Thus, 
If we are right in our conje&ures on the caufes of earth- 
quakes, we may conclude, that the globe always has been, and 
will be fubje& to fuch concuffions. From the earlieft ages, of 
which we have any accounts, this has been the cafe. Many 
parts of the earth bear the marks of great and furious eruptions ; 
not a few of which, were prior to all hiftorical monuments 
and records. The eruptions of the noted Etna, may be traced 
back an hundred years béfore the fiege of 772y.* Ve cfuvivis 
was a volcano before the foundations of Herculaneum and Pom- 
peü were firft laid. Thefe cities were covered by an eruption 
of Vefuvius, A. D. 79. Their foundations and pavements are 
all of that melted and vitrified fabftance called Java, which 
Pefuvius had thrown out ;—which is a proof of great erup- 
tions, prior to the foundations of thefe cites. How long 
thefe volcanoes, or thofe in teen the nd iflands, 
. and 
- * According to M. D’Orville. 
' $ Phil. Trani, for 1771. Art. 1, 
