Our Day. William Ambrose Spicer
"Among the earth movements which in historic times have affected the kingdom of Portugal, that of Nov. 1, 1755, takes first rank, as it does, also, in some respects, among all recorded earthquakes. … In six minutes sixty thousand people perished."—"Earthquakes," pp. 142, 143.
"Lo, there was a great earthquake," the revelator said. It was indeed "a great earthquake," and great was its influence. In all the world, men's hearts were mightily stirred. James Parton, an English author, says of it:
"The Lisbon earthquake of Nov. 1, 1755, appears to have put both the theologians and philosophers on the defensive. … At twenty minutes to ten that morning, Lisbon was firm and magnificent, on one of the most picturesque and commanding sites in the world—a city of superb approach, placed precisely where every circumstance had concurred to say to the founders, Build here! In six minutes the city was in ruins. … Half the world felt the convulsion. … For many weeks, as we see in the letters and memoirs of that time, people in distant parts of Europe went to bed in alarm, relieved in the morning to find that they had escaped the fate of Lisbon one night more."—"Life of Voltaire," Vol. II, pp. 208, 209.
The World Set to Thinking
This earthquake set men to thinking of the great day of God. Voltaire, the French philosopher, was "profoundly moved" by it, we are told. "It was the last judgment for that region," he wrote; "nothing was wanting to it except the trumpet." More than a month afterward, while still the perturbations of the earth were continuing, this skeptic wrote a poem upon the problem presented, voicing the sentiment:
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