821 



or three, and sometimes seven or eight minutes 

 beforehand) a shock : the force of which is sel- 

 dom in proportion to the intensity of the noise. 

 The carelessness of the inhabitants, who recol- 

 lect that for three centuries past their city has 

 not been overwhelmed, communicates itself 

 easily to the least intrepid traveller. In general 

 it is not so much the fear of the danger, as the 

 novelty of the sensation, that strikes so forcibly, 

 when the effect of the slightest earthquake is 

 felt for the first timet 



From our infancy, the idea of certain con- 

 trasts fixes itself in our minds : water appears 

 to us an element that moves ; earth, a motion- 

 less and inert mass. These ideas are the effect 

 of daily experience; they are connected with 

 every thing that is transmitted to us by the 

 senses. When a shock is felt, when the earth 

 is shaken on it's old foundations, which we had 

 deemed so stable, one instant is sufficient to 

 destroy long illusions. It is like awakening 

 from a dream; but a painful awakening. We 

 feel, that we have been deceived by the appa- 

 rent calm of nature ; we become attentive to 

 the least noise ; we mistrust for the first time. a 

 soil, on which we had so long placed our feet 

 with confidence. If the shocks be repeated, 

 if they become frequent during several succes- 

 sive days, the uncertainty quickly disappears. 

 In 1784, the inhabitants of Mexico were aecus- 



VOL. III. Y 



