"
_Mrs. B._ You will do quite right, my dears; and now let us change the
subject, for that is the best way to banish your regret.
_Ferdinand_. I was very much amused yesterday, mamma, with reading the
new book you gave me for a prize a little time ago.
_Mrs. B._ Miss Edgworth's "Early Lessons," do you mean, my dear
Ferdinand?
"Yes, mamma: I was reading that part of Harry and Lucy, in which their
father so clearly explains to them the expansibility of air, and the
power of steam; and I thought this might, perhaps, account for a thing
that has always puzzled me extremely, and that is, earthquakes.
[Footnote: Another remark of the child before mentioned.] I was reading
a description of one a few days ago, and feel very anxious to know what
can occasion such dreadful convulsions in the bowels of the earth. Will
you be so kind, mamma, as to tell me what is supposed to be the cause?"
_Mrs. B._ On this, as well as on most other philosophical subjects, the
opinions of the learned vary. Mr. *****, who was a great naturalist,
imagines some to be produced by fire, in the manner of volcanoes;
others, by the struggles of confined air, expanded by heat, and
endeavouring to get free. But there does not appear any sufficient
reason for this distinction. The union of fire and air seems necessary
to effect the explosion; since the former is an agent of no power,
without the aid of the latter.
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