Page:The Philosophy of Earthquakes, Natural and Religious.djvu/91

Rh anſwers given, he cou’d not obtain any ſatisfaction, as to that point. All this, and what was obſerv’d from Northampton, of the motion being thought by ſome, to be upward and downward; by others rather horizontal, or lateral: the counting the pulſes, and the like, only points out to us the prodigious celerity, and the vibratory ſpecies of the motion of an earthquake. But far, very far is this from being owing to the tumultuous ebullition, the irregular hurry of ſubterraneous exploſions.

12ly, How the atmoſphere, and earth, are put into that electric and vibratory ſtate, which prepares them to give, or receive the ſnap, and the ſhock, which we call an earthquake; what it is, that immediately produces it, we cannot ſay: any more than we can define, what is the cauſe of magnetiſm, or of gravitation; or how muſcular motion is perform’d, or a thouſand other ſecrets in nature.

We ſeem to know, that the author of the world has diſſeminated ethereal fire, thro’ all matter, by which theſe great operations are brought about. This is the ſubtil fluid of Sir Iſaac Newton, pervading all things: the occult fire diffuſed thro’ the univerſe, according to Marſilius Ficinus the platonic philoſopher, on the Timeus of his maſter. All the Platoniſts inſiſt on an occult fire paſſing thro’, and agitating all ſubſtance, by its vigorous and expanſive motion. Before