to be the scourge or the guardian of his country. In these
disasters, the architect becomes the enemy of mankind. The hut of a
savage, or the tent of an Arab, may be thrown down without injury to the
inhabitant; and the Peruvians had reason to deride the folly of their
Spanish conquerors, who with so much cost and labor erected their own
sepulchres. The rich marbles of a patrician are dashed on his own head:
a whole people is buried under the ruins of public and private edifices,
and the conflagration is kindled and propagated by the innumerable fires
which are necessary for the subsistence and manufactures of a great
city. Instead of the mutual sympathy which might comfort and assist the
distressed, they dreadfully experience the vices and passions which are
released from the fear of punishment: the tottering houses are pillaged
by intrepid avarice; revenge embraces the moment, and selects the
victim; and the earth often swallows the assassin, or the ravisher,
in the consummation of their crimes. Superstition involves the present
danger with invisible terrors; and if the image of death may sometimes
be subservient to the virtue or repentance of individuals, an affrighted
people is more forcibly moved to expect the end of the world, or to
deprecate with servile homage the wrath of an avenging Deity.

[Footnote 82: For the cause of earthquakes, see Buffon, (tom. i. p. 502--536
Supplement a l'Hist. Naturelle, tom. v. p. 382-390, edition in 4to.,
Valmont de Bomare, Dictionnaire d'Histoire Naturelle, Tremblemen de
Terre, Pyrites,) Watson, (Chemical Essays, tom. i. p. 181--209.)]

[Footnote 83: The earthquakes that shook the Roman world in the reign of
Justinian are described or mentioned by Procopius, (Goth. l. iv. c. 25
Anecdot. c. 18,) Agathias, (l. ii. p. 52, 53, 54, l. v. p. 145-152,)
John Malala, (Chron. tom. ii. p. 140-146, 176, 177, 183, 193, 220, 229,
231, 233, 234,) and Theophanes, (p. 151, 183, 189, 191-196.) * Note *:
Compare Daubeny on Earthquakes, and Lyell's Geology, vol. ii. p. 161 et
seq.--M]

[Footnote 84: An abrupt height, a perpendicular cape, between Aradus
and Botrys (Polyb. l. v. p. 411. Pompon. Mela, l. i. c. 12, p. 87,
cum Isaac. Voss. Observat. Maundrell, Journey, p. 32, 33. Pocock's
Description, vol. ii. p. 99.)]

[Footnote 85: Botrys was founded (ann. ante Christ. 935--903) by
Ithobal, king of Tyre, (Marsham, Canon. Chron. p. 387, 388.) Its poor
representative, the village of Patrone, is now d