once carried on. It is certainly true that many of the ports are silted
up, and are now useless as such, but whether the silting up preceded the
disappearance of the population, or whether the disappearance of the
population, and the consequent neglect caused the silting, I cannot
venture to positively assert.

For there are signs that the level of the sea has sunk in some places,
and signs that it has become higher in others, so that the judicious
historian will simply state the facts, and refrain from colouring them
with his own theory as Silvester has done. Others again maintain that
the supply of food from over the ocean suddenly stopping caused great
disorders, and that the people crowded on board all the ships to escape
starvation, and sailed away, and were no more heard of.

It has, too, been said that the earth, from some attractive power
exercised by the passage of an enormous dark body through space, became
tilted or inclined to its orbit more than before, and that this, while
it lasted, altered the flow of the magnetic currents, which, in an
imperceptible manner, influence the minds of men. Hitherto the stream of
human life had directed itself to the westward, but when this reversal
of magnetism occurred, a general desire arose to return to the east. And
those whose business is theology have pointed out that the wickedness of
those times surpassed understanding, and that a change and sweeping away
of the human evil that had accumulated was necessary, and was effected
by supernatural means. The relation of this must be left to them, since
it is not the province of the philosopher to meddle with such matters.

All that seems certain is, that when the event took place, the immense
crowds collected in cities were most affected, and that the richer and
upper classes made use of their money to escape. Those left behind were