INFLUENCE OF THE GULF STREAM UPON CLIMATES. 57 



the pearl and feeds the great whale, and adapted each to the 

 physical conditions by which his providence has surrounded it. 

 Whether of the land or the sea, the inhabitants are all his crea- 

 tures, subjects of his laws, and agents in his economy. The sea, 

 therefore, we may safely infer, has its offices and duties to per- 

 form ; so may we infer, have its currents, and so, too, its inhabi- 

 tants ; consequently, he who undertakes to study its phenomena 

 must cease to regard it as a waste of waters. He must look upon 

 it as a part of that exquisite machinery by which the harmonies 

 of nature are preserved, and then he will begin to perceive the de- 

 velopments of order and the evidences of design ; these make it a 

 most beautiful and interesting subject for contemplation. 



77. To one who has never studied the mechanism of a watch, 

 its main-spring or the balance-wheel is a mere piece of metal. He 

 may have looked at the face of the watch, and, while he admires 

 the motion of its hands, and the time it keeps, or the tune it plays, 

 he may have wondered in idle amazement as to the character of 

 the machinery which is concealed within. Take it to pieces, and 

 shov/ him each part separately ; he will recognize neither design, 

 nor adaptation, nor relation between them ; but put them together, 

 set them to work, point out the offices of each spring, wheel, and 

 cog, explain their movements, and then show him the result ; now 

 he perceives that it is all one design ; that, notwithstanding the 

 number of parts, their diverse forms and various offices, and the 

 agents concerned, the whole piece is of one thought, the expres- 

 sion of one idea. He now rightly concludes that when the main- 

 spring was fashioned and tempered, its relation to all the other 

 parts must have been considered ; that the cogs on this wheel are 

 cut and regulated — adapted — to the rachets on that, &c. ; and his 

 final conclusion will be, that such a piece of mechanism could not 

 have been produced by chance ; for the adaptation of the parts is 

 such as to show it to be according to design, and obedient to the 

 will of one intelligence. So, too, when one looks out upon the 

 face of this beautiful world, he may admire its lovely scenery, but 

 his admiration can never grow into adoration unless he will take 

 the trouble to look behind and study, in some of its details at 

 least, the exquisite system of machinery by which such beautiful 



