STUDY I. 



49 



receive ; of the matter which attrafls them, and 

 fixes round their peaks, rifing like fo many elec- 

 tric needles. 



Finally, I fhall examine, For what reafon Na- 

 ture has divided the Globe into two Hemifpheres ; 

 what means (he employs to accelerate, or retard, 

 the courfe of rivers, and to prote6t their mouths 

 againft the movements and currents of the Ocean. 

 I fliall treat of banks, of fhallows, of rocks, of 

 ifles, whether in feas or rivers ; and I (hall prove, 

 I am confident to fay, to a demonftration, that 

 thcfe parcels detached from the Continent, are no 

 more ruinous fragments, violently feparated from 

 them, than bays, gulfs, and inland-feas, are violent 

 irruptions of the Ocean. 



I (hall terminate this part, by indicating the 

 principal agents, employed by Nature, in repairing 

 her works : how (lie makes ufe of fire to purify, 

 in the form of thunder, the air, fo frequently 

 loaded with mephitic vapours during the violent 

 heats of Summer ; and the waters of great lakes 

 and Seas, by the volcanos which (he has placed in 

 their neighbourhood, at the extremity of their 

 currents, and which flie has multiplied in warm 

 countries ; how (he cleanfes the bafons of thefe 

 very waters, which, in the courfe of a few ages, 

 would be choked up by the accumulated fpoils of 



VOL. I. s the 



