EARTHQUAKE, &c.
It is a doctrine singular and barbarous, but it is nevertheless true,
that _destruction is necessary_. Every species of animals would multiply
beyond their bounds in the creation, were not means devised to thin
their race.
I perused an author in 1738, who asserts, "The world might maintain
sixty times the number of its present inhabitants." Two able disputants,
like those in religion, might maintain sixty arguments on the subject,
and like them, leave the matter where they found it. But if restraint
was removed, the present number would be multiplied into sixty, in much
less than one century.
Those animals appropriated for use, are suffered, or rather invited, to
multiply without limitation. But _luxury_ cuts off the beast, the pig,
the sheep, and the fowl, and ill treatment the horse: vermin of every
kind, from the lion to the louse, are hunted to death; a perpetual
contest seems to exist between them and us; they for their preservation,
and we for their extinction. The kitten and the puppy are cast _into_
the water, to end their lives; _out_ of which the fishes are drawn to
end theirs--animals are every were devoured by animals.
Their grand governor, man himself, is under controul; some by religious,
others by interested motives. Even the fond parent, seldom wishes to
increase the number of those objects, which of all others he
values most!
In civilized nations the superior class are restrained by the laws of
honour, the inferior by those of bastardy; but, notwithstanding these
restraints, the human race would increase beyond measure, were they not
taken off by casualties. It is in our species alone, that we often
behold the infant flame extinguished by the wretched nurse.
Three dreadful calamities attending existence, are inundations, fires,
and earthquakes; devestation follows their footsteps, But _one_
calamity, more destructive than them all, rises from man
himself, _war_.
Birmingham, from its elevation, is nearly exempt from the flood; our
inundations, instead of sweeping away life and fortune, sweep away the
filth from the kennel.
It is amasing, in a place crowded with people, that so _much_ business,
and so _little_ mischief is done by fire: we abound more with party
walls, than with timber buildings. Utensils are ever ready to extinguish
the flames, and a generous spirit to use them. I am not certain that a
conflagration of 50_l_. damage, has happened within memory.
I have only one earthquake to record, felt Nov. 15, 1772, at four in the
morning; it extended about eight miles in length, from Hall-green to
Erdington, and four in breadth, of which Birmingham was part. The
shaking of the earth continued about five seconds, with unequal
vibration, sufficient to awake a gentle sleeper, throw down a knife
carelessly reared up, or rattle the brass drops of a chest of drawers. A
flock of sheep, in a field near Yardley, frightened at the trembling,
ran away.--No damage was sustained.