Page:The Philosophy of Earthquakes, Natural and Religious.djvu/42

 38 By this we electrify the most solid bodies, to the greatest distance, and with a velocity equal to that of lightning.

Dr. Hales observes, that the usual explosion of the cannon on great days, in St. James's-Park, is observ'd to electrify the glass, in the windows of the Treasury.

We must conceive, that when the electric shock is communicated to one part of the earth it tends itself proportionably to the force of the shock, and to the quantity of electrified surface; and to the quality of the matter more or less susceptible of it, more or less apt to propagate it.

Set 1000 men in a row; let every one communicate with those next him by an iron-wire held in their hands: on an electrical shock they all feel it alike, at the same instant; and this gives us a very good idea of the earthquake.

When the earth is broken up in any large degree, 'tis by the sea-side; where sometimes on a bold shore, whole streets tumble into the sea, or into the gaping earth, now falling toward the sea. Sometimes on a flat and sandy shore, whole streets are rolled along the level into the sea.

I am not sensible of any real objection against our hypothesis, but this, being the eleventh of my positions, or circumstances. It seems true, that earthquakes are more