“From the Augusta Herald”

Date

4-8-1812

Newspaper

The Times

Page and Column

Page 2, Column 2-4

Newspaper Location

Charleston, South Carolina

Serial Number

412

Abstract

Long article from the Augusta Herald on the origins of earthquakes.

Transcript

FROM THE AUGUSTA HERALD. TO THE EDITORS-I SHOULD be wanting in that deference which I feel for the opinions of the Editors of the Augusta Herald, though that happen to be in opposition to my own, respecting the theory of Earthquakes, as expressed in observations on the physical causes of Earthquakes,which appeared in your paper of the 27th ult: If I did not give them a most attentive consideration and reply. I avail myself also, of the apportunity it affords me, without appearing obtrusive of offering some additional illustrations in support of the theory of Earthquakes, on the principles of electricity. From a general view of your observations, after passing over your introductory remarks, it would appear by the contest that we were at issue in our opinions as to the immediate superintendence of providence in the physical and moral government of the world. Your words in one of the passages I allude to are-"how it might be asked, was the heat and cold produced, or by whose direction was it, that the atmosphere was so tempered as to be instrumental in producing these effects. It will be seen from this consideration, that in this, us in every other case without exception, the secondary or physical cause is but an agent commissioned by a superior power to execute his purposes, and set in motion by various mean is to accomplish his designs." Really Messr's. Editors, I have cause to complain, that you will not suffer me to be of your own opinion, although I had preceeded you in the above sentiment, in my publication, of the 27th ult: I offer the following extract from it as in point. "Whether by his immediate will, or by secondary causes-by laws impressed on nature at the creation, the Earth trembleth, and the Mountains rock, it matters not-in either case in emanates from the will and power of God." This accords substantially with your own idea, and I conceive the sentiment to be so orthodox that every good man must accede to it. Again by a natural implication, it would seem by your concluding paragraph, that I had overlooked final causes--it will appear, however, by a reference to the publication in question, that we are perfectly agreed that the final cause of Earthquake is "thereformation of the wicked." In matters of minor consideration, our sentiments do not so exactly coincide. In the economy of the world it appears to me that God, generally and except in very extraordinary instances, acts by secondary causes. A general and a particular providence, in my view of them, are distinctions without a difference. God by his prescience foreknows all possible events. With him nothing is contingent or fortuitous. By the concentration of causes from the FIRST CAUSE, no possible conjuncture can rise, but is a link in the regular series or succession of cause and effect. There is no impiety, I conceive, in supposing, as some have done, that the deulge was occasioned by the near approach of Comet to the Earth. God foreknew to what an extremity the wickedness of the human race would arrive at that conjuncture. The period and approximation of the Comet to the earth was appointed at the creation to coincide with that particular time. A pious Poet under this impression has said on another occasion:-- As man, perhaps, the moment of his breath, Receives the lurking principle of death." You, yourselves, I own do not deny secondary causes, but you-"pass lightly over them, and seek their true origin where only they are to be found, in the will of him who of old laid the foundations of the earth, &c." I hold the same sentiment-but I do not pass lightly over secondary causes for the following consideration. God, who does nothing in vain, has implanted in us a disposition to investigate the phenomena of Nature, and has attached pleasure, and often benefit to our researches into natural science. I will adduce one instance. It relates to thunder and lightning. Taking into view its more frequent occurrence, and lightning is not less awful, and destructive, than Earthquakes themselves-yet can we find security from its fearful effects in the lightning rod. Had our countrymen, Franklin, by a monastic superstition, or a mistaken reverential awe, been deterred from investigating this tremendous phenomenon, we had been still exposed, in all instances, to its destructive influence. I differ therefore with you, as to the utility of investigating into the physical causes of Earthquakes-for in my opinion it would be presumptuous to any, that the cause will for ever lay concealed from human percipicuity-or the possibility of its leading to some discovery from which security may be obtained from its overwhelming ruin. Would not any person be ridiculed, precedent to Franklin's discovery, who would assert that lightning might be controlled by human ingenuity. Who then can say that the same fluid acting in the earth may not be restrained by some happy discovery, as effectually, as when its influence is confined to the atmosphere? But are their interdicted objects in nature or natural phenomena, too stupendous for the approach of philosophical investigation-or, "When Earthquake swallow-or when tempests sweep, Towns to one grave-whole nations to the deep," Ought the overwhelming catastrophe so to paralyze our facilities as to preclude enquiry? I trust not-however it may inspire us with a proper sense of our dependence on the great disposer of events, in whose eyes there is no distinction between great and small. "Who sees with equal eyes as God of all, A Hero perish or a Sparrow fall, Atoms or systems into ruin hurl'd, And now a bubble burst-and now a world." "To him no high, no low, no great, no small, He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all!" It follows, therefore, that as he regards no distinction.-So, neither can it be contrary to the will of God, the universal criterion of right, that man should investigate, with equal freedom, the physical causes that involve the destructions of a world-or the chymical properties of matter. I now proceed to answer your objections to the theory I have advanced in the order in which they are stated. If light and the electric fluid be radically the same, you ask, "why do they not both undergo the same change by their contact with, and absorption into the earth?" The electric fluid itself, undergoes no change but occasionally in degree, as positive and negative. By this circumstance, light experiences a change of modification, which though the fact is pretty evident, the manner or means lies beyond the perspicuity of human wisdom. It retains, however, most of its radical properties-and when it occasionally receives a new motion, similar to what it had in its effluence from the sun, it appears in its natural for of light and heat. It retains, in its new state, its original velocity. Dr. Watson found by an actual experiment, that it travelled five miles along a conductor in less time than the senses could distinguish. The solar rays are devoid of heat, except when converging to or diverging from a center. The same obtains in regard to the electric fluid. Neither of them communicate the smallest heat, but when passing through a resisting medium. Such transformation as light undergoes by its absorption into the earth, are, perhaps, not very uncommon, and its analogous to the change effected on heat by an alteration in the direction of its motion. In its affluent state, that is when tending to a center, the heat is said to be latent, and will not affect our senses or the thermometer. When affuent, the heat become sensible-nay, cold itself is believed to be a modification of the matter of heat. The electric fluid undergoes a change by its contact with iron and ferruginous bodies-and is, thereby, converted into the magnetic principle; for there is no doubt that electricity is the cause of magnetism. Here, again, it retains, after its transmutation, most of the original properties of electricity.

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