§ iSS. THE SALTS OF THE SEA. 257 



may be inappreciable, but, unless there was a balance provided 

 somewhere — a pendulum that requires ages for a vibration — they 

 would, during the progress of time, accumulate so as to j)roduce 

 disorder, and finally cause the destruction of worlds. So, too, with 

 the salts of the sea, and those little microscopic inhabitants of its 

 waters. They take care of its outstanding quantities of solid mat- 

 ter, and by their influence preserve harmony in the ocean. It is 

 immaterial how great or how small that influence may be sup- 

 posed to be; for, be it great or small, it is cumulative; and we 

 therefore may rest assured it is not a chance influence, but it is an 

 influence exercised by design, and according to the commandment 

 of Him whose " voice the winds and the sea obey.'' Thus God 

 speaks through sea-shells to the ocean. ' 



488. It may therefore be supposed that the arrangements in the 

 Their physical reia- ccouomy of uaturc are such as to require that the 

 *'°°^- various kinds of marine animals, whose secretions 



are calculated to alter the specific gravity of sea water, to destroy 

 its equilibrium, to beget currents in the ocean, and to control its 

 circulation, should be distributed according to order. Upon this 

 supposition — the like of which nature warrants throughout her 

 whole domain — we may conceive how the marine animals of 

 which we have been speaking may impress other features upon 

 the physical relations of the sea by assisting also to regulate cli- 

 mates, and to adjust the temperature of certain latitudes. For in- 

 stance, let US suppose the waters in a certain part of the torrid 

 zone to be 90°, but, by reason of the fresh water which has been 

 taken from them in a state of vapor, and consequently by reason 

 of the proportionate increase of salts, these waters are heavier than 

 waters that may be cooler, but not so salt (§ 105). This being the 

 case, the tendency would be for this warm, but salt and heavy wa- 

 ter, to flow off as an under current toward the polar or some other 

 regions of lighter water. Moreover, if the sea were not salt, there 

 would be no coral islands to beautify its landscape and give va- 

 riety to its features ; sea-shells and marine insects could not oper- 

 ate upon the specific gravity of its waters, nor give diversity to 

 its climates ; neither could evaporation give dynamical force to 

 its circulation ; its waters, ceasing to contract as their temperature 

 falls below 89°, would give but little impulse to its currents, and 

 impart no motion (§ 404) to its waters in the depths below: thus 



K 



