98 MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY 



upper sky. This mountain draws the heat from them; 

 they are formed into clouds and condensed into rain, 

 which, coming to the earth, make it 'soft with showers', 

 causing the trees of the field to clap their hands, the 

 valleys to shout, and the mountains to sing. Thus the 

 earth is made to yield her increase, and the heart of man 

 is glad. 



''Nor does the office of this cup of water in the physical 

 economy end here. It has brought heat from the sea 

 in the southern hemisphere to be set free here for the 

 regulation of our climates ; it has ministered to the green 

 plants, and given meat and drink to man and beast. 

 It has now to cater among the rocks for the fish and in- 

 sects of the sea. Eating away your mountains, it fills 

 up the valleys, and then, loaded with lime and salts of 

 various minerals, it goes singing and dancing and leap- 

 ing back to the sea, owning man by the way as a task- 

 master — turning mills, driving machinery, transporting 

 merchandise for him — and finally reaching the ocean. 

 It there joins the currents to be conveyed to its appointed 

 place, which it never fails to reach in due time, with food 

 in due quantities for the inhabitants of the deep, and 

 with materials of the right kind to be elaborated in the 

 workshops of the sea into pearls, corals, and islands — all 

 for man's use. 



"Thus the right-minded student of this science is 

 brought to recognize in the dewdrop the materials of 

 which He who Valketh upon the wings of the wind' 

 maketh His chariot. He also discovers in the raindrop 

 a clue by which the Christian philosopher may be con- 

 ducted into the very chambers from which the hills are 

 watered. 



'T have been blamed by men of science, both in this 



