§ 200, 201. THE ATMOSPHEKE. 71 



CHAPTER lY. 



§ 200-261. — THE ATMOSPHERE. 



200. There is no employment more ennobling to man and 

 Likened to a ma- ^^^ intellect than to trace the evidences of design 

 ^^^^^- and purpose, which are visible in many parts of th.c 



creation. Hence, to the right-minded mariner, and to him wbu 

 studies the physical relations of earth, sea, and air, the atmosphere 

 is something more than a shoreless ocean, at the bottom, of which 

 he creeps along. It is an envelope or covering for the dispersion 

 of light and heat over the surface of the earth ; it is a sewer into 

 which, with every breath we draw, we cast vast quantities of 

 dead animal matter; it is a laboratory for purification, in which 

 that matter is recompounded, and wrought again into whole- 

 some and healthful shapes ; it is a machine (§ 191) for pump- 

 ing up all the rivers from the sea, and for conveying the water 

 from the ocean to their sources in the mountains ; it is an inex- 

 haustible magazine, marvelously stored. Upon the proper work- 

 ing of this machine depends the well-being of every plant and 

 animal that inhabits the earth. How interesting, then, ought not 

 the study of it to be ! An examination of the uses which plants 

 and animals make of the air is sufficient to satisfy any reasoning 

 mind in the conviction that when they were created, the necessity 

 of this adaptation was taken into account. The connection be- 

 tween any two parts of an artificial machine that work into each 

 other, does not render design in its construction more patent than 

 is the fact that the great atmospherical machine of our planet was 

 constructed by an Architect who designed it for certain purposes ; 

 therefore the management of it, its movements, and the perform- 

 ance of its offices, can not be left to chance. They are, we may 

 rely upon it, guided by laws that make all parts, functions, and 

 movements of this machinery as obedient to order and as harmo- 

 nious as are the planets in their orbits. 



201. An examination into the economy of the universe will be 

 The air and the sufficicut to satisfy the wcll-balauced minds of ob- 

 sSie ilws!™^ ^ servant men that the laws which govern the atmos- 



