"I know not whether this pride, this scientific impertinence to which philosophy always has recourse to banish the fear of strange events, is more presumption than as a punishment for our sins; and it appears fated that this should happen more in earthquakes than in other impulses of the Omnipotent hand." The preacher then proceeded to show by what sort of fire Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, comparing their inhabitants to those of Lisbon, in no flattering terms. "If you would know the cause of these calamities, listen not to what the mathematicians and philosophers say, but to what God says through the mouth of his prophet Isaias: `Movebitur terra de loco suo propter indignationem Domini exercituum et propter diem irae furoris ejus.' (Isaiah xiii. 13.) "Cease to persuade yourselves, then, that the earth is moved, not because the world is living, as some atheists say;--not because it swims on the sea, as Thales says;--not because the subterranean fires and waters meet, as Democrates says;--not because some of its enormous portions are hurled to the centre, as Anaximenes says;--not because the wind confined in the internal caverns of the globe bursts forth, as Aristotle says;--but because thus God shakes it, and because God drives it with an invisible force, proceeding from His sovereign indignation. "There is no doubt that the prophet foretold the fate of Lisbon under the name of Babylon, when he says: `Vidi Angelum descendentem de caelo, habentem potestatem magnam; et exclamavit in fortitudine, dicens: Cecidit, cecidit Babylon.' "Yes, the crimes of the people will ascend to heaven, and remind God of their wickedness, and He will cause their city to become a heap of ruins and ashes, and there shall be death, and mourning, and hunger. Did not all this happen, and did not the King, when he beheld his palace and his city in flames, weep and mourn? `Et flebunt et plangent super illam Reges terrae cum viderint fumum incendii ejus.'" He then mentioned the riches that were destroyed exactly as the prophet foretold. "What further evidence to convince you of the truth would you have? Yet here are others. Did not the pilots and sailors remain at a distance, on the bosom of the Tagus, to behold the miserable destruction? `Et omnis gubernator, et omnis qui in lacum navigat et qui in mari operantur longe steterunt.' "Did not also the singers and musicians, who had come from various countries to increase the amusements of the Court, fly away, so that the sounds of their instruments were no more heard? `Et vox citharaedorum et musicorum et tibia canentium et tuba, non audietur in te amplius.'