126 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA. 



performance of their offices, I have felt myself constrained to set 

 out with the assumption that, if the atmosphere had had a greater 

 or less capacity for moisture, or if the proportion of land and wa- 

 ter had been different — if the earth, air, and water had not been 

 in exact counterpoise — the whole arrangement of the animal and 

 vegetable kingdoms would have varied from their present state. 

 But God, for reasons which man may never know, chose to make 

 those kingdoms what they are ; for this purpose it was necessary, 

 in his judgment, to establish the proportions between the land 

 and water, and the desert, just as they are, and to make the ca- 

 pacity of the air to circulate heat and moisture just what it is, 

 and to have it to do all its work in obedience to law and in sub- 

 servience to order. If it were not so, why was power given to 

 the winds to lift up and transport moisture, and to feed the plants 

 with nourishment ? or why was the property given to the sea by 

 which its waters may become first vapor, and then fruitful show- 

 ers or gentle dews ? If the proportions and properties of land, 

 sea, and air were not adjusted according to the reciprocal capaci- 

 ties of all to perform the functions required by each, why should 

 we be told that He " measured the waters in the hollow of his 

 hand, and comprehended the dust in a measure, and weighed the 

 mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?" Why did he 

 span the heavens but that he might mete out the atmosphere in 

 exact proportion to all the rest, and impart to it those properties 

 and powers which it was necessary for it to have, in order that 

 it might perform all those offices and duties for which he design- 

 ed it ? Harmonious in their action, the air and sea are obedient 

 to law and subject to order in all their movements ; when we 

 consult them in the performance of their manifold and marvelous 

 offices, they teach us lessons concerning the wonders of the deep, 

 the mysteries of the sky, the greatness, and the wisdom, and good- 

 ness of the Creator, which make us wiser and better men. The 

 investigations into the broad-spreading circle of phenomena con- 

 nected with the winds of heaven and the waves of the sea are 

 second to none for the good which they do and the lessons which 

 they teach. The astronomer is said to see the hand of God in 

 the sky ; but does not the right-minded mariner, who looks aloft 

 as he ponders over these things, hear his voice in every wave of 

 the sea that " claps its hands," and feel his presence in every 

 breeze that blows ? 



