These latter phenomena, perhaps,
possess for me a peculiar interest, from their intimate connexion
with the geological structure of the world. The earthquake,
however, must be to every one a most impressive event: the earth,
considered from our earliest childhood as the type of solidity, has
oscillated like a thin crust beneath our feet; and in seeing the
laboured works of man in a moment overthrown, we feel the
insignificance of his boasted power.
It has been said that the love of the chase is an inherent delight
in man--a relic of an instinctive passion. If so, I am sure the
pleasure of living in the open air, with the sky for a roof and the
ground for a table, is part of the same feeling; it is the savage
returning to his wild and native habits. I always look back to our
boat cruises, and my land journeys, when through unfrequented
countries, with an extreme delight, which no scenes of civilisation
could have created. I do not doubt that every traveller must
remember the glowing sense of happiness which he experienced when
he first breathed in a foreign clime where the civilised man had
seldom or never trod.
There are several other sources of enjoyment in a long voyage which
are of a more reasonable nature.
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