EARTHQUAKE. 41 



more rigid and inhuman. In great calami- 

 ties, vulgar minds preserve still less good- 

 ness than strength ; misfortune acts in the 

 same manner as the pursuits of literature 

 and the study of nature ; their happy influ- 

 ence is felt only by a fev^, giving more 

 ardour to sentiment, more elevation to the 

 thoughts, and more benevolence to the 

 disposition. 



Shocks as violent as those which in 

 the space of one minute overthrew the city 

 of Caraccas, could not be confined to a small 

 portion of the continent. Their fatal effects 

 extended as far as the provinces of Vene- 

 zuela, Varinas, and Maracaybo, along the 

 coast; and still more to the inland moun- 

 tains ; La Guayra, Mayquetia, Antimano, 

 Baruta, La Vega, San Felipe, and Merida, 

 were almost entirely destroyed. The num- 

 ber of the dead exceeded four or five thou- 

 sand at La Guayra, and at the town of San 



