17 



streets. In this town was now repeated what 

 had been remarked in the province of Quito, 

 after the tremendous earthquake of 1797 ; a 

 number of marriages were contracted between 

 persons, who had neglected for many years to 

 sanction their union by the sacerdotal benedic- 

 tion. Children found parents, by whom they 

 had never till then been acknowledged ; restitu- 

 tions were promised by persons, who had never 

 been accused of fraud ; and families, who had 

 long been enemies, were drawn together by the 

 tie of common calamity." If this feeling seemed 

 to calm the passions of some, and open the heart 

 to pity, it had a contrary effect on others, ren- 

 dering them more rigid and inhuman. In great 

 calamities 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 influence is felt 

 only by a few, giving more ardour to sentiment, 

 more elevation to the thoughts, and more bene- 

 volence to the disposition. 



" Shocks as violent as those, which in the 

 space of one minute* overthrew the city of 



* The duration of the earthquake, that is to say the whole 

 of the movements of undulation and rising (undulaceon y tre- 

 pidacionj, which occasioned the horrible catastrophe of the 

 26th of March, 1812, was estimated by some at 50", by 

 others at V 12". 



VOL. IV. 



C 



