CHAP. XXII.
THerefore let vs first of all speake of the motion by succussion or shaking.* 1.1 If at any time, by change of diuers chariots, men carry great burthens, and that the wheeles being drawne with more then vsuall force, sincke into some place, you shall feele a shaking of the earth. Asclepi••dotus reporteth, that when as a stone fell from the side of a mountaine that was broken, it shaked in such sort the buil∣dings that were neere•• that they fell to the ground. The like may happen vnder earth, that some of those stones that hang ouer the mountaine, being dissolued, fal with some great waight and noise into the hollowes that are vnder earth, and the greater the waight is, and the higher it falleth from, the more violent noise is there made; and so all the couering of the hollow valley is moued. And it is not vnlikely but the rocks are pushed downward, and diuided by their simple waight; but when as the riuers flow and rage aboue them, the water continual∣ly minisheth the ioynts of the stone, riuing off (if I may so speake) the skin that incloseth it. This diminution increasing by succession of time, infeebleth in such sort that which it hath eaten, by little and little, that such staies cannot any more sustaine the burthen. Then fall the stones through excessiue waight and this rocke being cast downe head-long, shaketh all that which it hath driuen to the bottome, hauing found no resistance.
And all things seeme to fall to sudden ruine.