30 



EARLY ITALIAN WRITERS. 



[Ch. III. 



earthquakes, and the successive changes of position which 

 the land and sea have undergone, we meet with the following 

 beautiful passage which is given as the narrative of Kidhz 



an allegorical 



personage : — ' I passed one day by a very 

 ancient and wonderfully populous city, and asked one of its 

 inhabitants how long it had been founded. "It is indeed 

 a mighty city," replied he ; " we know not how long it has 

 existed, and our ancestors were on this subject as ignorant 

 as ourselves." Five centuries afterwards, as I passed by the 

 same place, I could not perceive the slightest vestige of the 

 city. I demanded of a peasant, who was gathering herbs 

 upon its former site, how long it had been destroyed. " In 

 sooth a strange question ! " replied he. " The ground here 

 has never been different from what you now behold it.' : 

 " Was there not of old," said I, " a splendid city here ? ' : 

 " Never," answered he, " so far as we have seen, and never did 

 our fathers speak to us of any such." On my return there 

 500 years afterwards, I found the sea in the same place, and 

 on its shores were a party of fishermen, of whom I enquired 



Is 



how long the land had been covered by the waters ? 

 this a question," said they, " for a man like you ? this spot 

 has always been what it is now." I again returned, 500 

 years afterwards, and the sea had disappeared ; I enquired 

 of a man who stood alone upon the spot, how long ago this 

 change had taken place, and he gave me the same answer 

 as I had received before. Lastly, on coming back again 

 after an equal lapse of time, I found there a flourishing 

 city, more populous and more rich in beautiful buildings, 



than the city I had seen the first time, and when I would 



the in- 

 habitants answered me, " Its rise is lost in remote antiquity : 

 we are ignorant how long it has existed, and our fathers were 

 on this subject as ignorant as ourselves. 



Early Italian Writers. — It was not till the earlier part of the 

 sixteenth century that geological phenomena began to attract 

 the attention of the Christian nations. At that period a very 

 animated controversy sprang up in Italy, concerning the true 

 nature and origin of marine shells, and other organised fossils, 

 found abundantly in the strata of the peninsula. The cele- 



fain have informed myself concerning its origin, 



•>•> y 





' 



