Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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The
Indifference Of The Inhabitants, Who Bear In Mind That For Three
Centuries Past Their City Has Not Been Destroyed, Readily
Communicates Itself To The Least Intrepid Traveller.
It is not so
much the fear of the danger, as the novelty of the sensation, which
makes so forcible an impression when the effect of the slightest
earthquake is felt for the first time.
From our infancy, the idea of certain contrasts becomes fixed in
our minds: water appears to us an element that moves; earth, a
motionless and inert mass. These impressions are the result of
daily experience; they are connected with everything that is
transmitted to us by the senses. When the shock of an earthquake is
felt, when the earth which we had deemed so stable is shaken on its
old foundations, one instant suffices to destroy long-fixed
illusions. It is like awakening from a dream; but a painful
awakening. We feel that we have been deceived by the apparent
stability of nature; we become observant of the least noise; we
mistrust for the first time the soil we have so long trod with
confidence. But if the shocks be repeated, if they become frequent
during several successive days, the uncertainty quickly disappears.
In 1784, the inhabitants of Mexico were accustomed to hear the
thunder roll beneath their feet,* (* Los bramidos de Guanazuato.)
as it is heard by us in the region of the clouds. Confidence easily
springs up in the human breast: on the coasts of Peru we become
accustomed to the undulations of the ground, as the sailor becomes
accustomed to the tossing of the ship, caused by the motion of the
waves.
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