54 
CHAP. Ve 
OCEAN CURRENTS. 
Causes of the Oceanic Currents.—The Equatorial Stream.—The Gulf Stream.— 
Its Influence on the Climate of the West European Coasts.—The Cold Peruvian 
Stream.— The Japanese Stream. 
PeRPETUAL motion and change is the grand law, to which the 
whole of the created universe is subject, and immutable stability 
is nowhere to be found, but in the Eternal mind that rules and 
governs all things. The stars, which were supposed to be fixed 
to the canopy of heaven, are restless wanderers through the 
illimitable regions of space. The hardest rocks melt away 
under the corroding influence of time, for the elements never 
cease gnawing at their surface, and dislocating the atoms of 
which they are composed. Our body appears to us unchanged 
since yesterday, and yet how many cf the particles which formed 
its substance, have within these few short hours, been cast off 
and replaced by others. We fancy ourselves at rest, and yet a 
torrent of blood, propelled by an indefatigable heart, is con- 
stantly flowing through all our arteries and veins. 
A similar external appearance of tranquillity might deceive 
the superficial observer, when sailing over the vast expanse of 
ocean, at a time when the winds are asleep, and its surface is 
unruffled by a wave. But how great would be his error! For 
every atom of the boundless sea is constantly moving and 
changing its place; from the depth to the surface, or from the 
surface to the depth; from the frozen pole to the burning 
equator, or from the torrid zone to the arctic ocean; now rising 
in the air in the form of invisible vapours, and then again de- 
scending upon our fields in fertilising showers. 
The waters are, in fact, the greatest travellers on earth; they 
know all the secrets of the submarine world; climb the peaks 
