THE ATMOSPHERE. 79 



meets the south-east trades, 0, in the equatorial calms, where it 

 ascends as E F, and travels as ¥ G with the upper cmTent to the 

 calms of Capricorn, thence as H J K, with the prevaihng north- 

 west surface current to the south pole, thence up with, the arrow P', 

 and around with the hands of a watch, and back, as indicated by 

 the arrows along LMNOQESTUY. 



216. The Bible frequently makes allusion to the laws of nature, 

 As our knowicdgre of their Operation and effects. But such allusions 

 Ss i'ncn>ai!ed!so^^ are oftcH SO Wrapped in the folds of the peculiar and 

 of the'nibi??m-^^ graceful drapery with which its language is occa- 

 proved. sioually clothed, that the meaning, though peeping 

 out from its thin covering all the while, yet hes in some sense 

 concealed, until the lights and revelations of science are thrown 

 upon it ; then it bursts out and strikes us with exquisite force and 

 beauty. As om: knowledge of nature and her laws has increased, 

 so has our understanding of many passages in the Bible been 

 improved. The Psalmist called the earth " the round vv^orld ;" yet 

 for ages it was the most damnable heresy for Christian men 

 to say the world is round ; and, finally, sailors circumnavigated the 

 globe, proved the Bible to be right, and saved Christian men 

 of science from the stake. " Canst thou bind the sweet influences 

 of Pleiades?" Astronomers of the present day, if they have 

 not answered this question, have thrown so much light upon 

 it as to show that, if ever it be answered by man, he must consult 

 the science of astronomy. It has been recently all but proved, 

 that the earth and sun, with their splendid retinue of comets, 

 satellites, and planets, are all in motion around some point or 

 centre of attraction inconceivably remote, and that that point 

 is in the direction of the star Alcyon, one of the Pleiades ! Who 

 but the astronomer, then, could tell their " sweet influences ?" 

 And as for the general system of atmospherical circulation which I 

 have been so long endeavom'ing to describe, the Bible tells it all in 

 a single^ sentence : " The wind goeth towards the south, and turneth 

 about unto the north ; it whirleth about continually, and the wind 

 retm^neth again according to his circuits." — Eccl. i. 6. 



217. Of course, as the surface winds, H J K, and T U Y, 

 Fiongiiinc; off from approach the polcs, there must be a sloughing off, — 

 the counter trades, jf J ^^^ ^^ allowcd the cxprcssion,— of air from 

 them, in consequence of their approaching the poles. For as they 

 near the poles, the parallels become smaller and smaller, and the 

 surface cm-rent must either extend much higher up, and blow witli 



