EAINS AND IlIYERS. 131 



opposite, but in proportions so exactly balanced that resnlts tho 

 most liarmonioiis are produced. It is by the action of opposite 

 and compensating forces that the earth is kept in its orbit, and 

 the stars are held suspended in the az^^re vault of heaven ; and 

 these forces are so exquisitely adjusted, that, at the end of a 

 thousand years, the earth, the sun, and moon, and every star in 

 the firmament, is found to come and twinkle in its proper place 

 at the proper moment. Nay, philosophy teaches us that when 

 the little snowdrop — which in our garden walks we see raising 

 its head at " the singing of birds," to remind us that '* the winter 

 is passed and gone" — was created, the whole mass of the earth, 

 from pole to pole, and from circumference to centre, must have 

 been taken into account and weighed, in order that the proper 

 degree of strength might be given to its tiny fibres. Botanists 

 tell us that the constitution of this plant is such as to require 

 that, at a certain stage of its growth, the stalk should bend, and 

 the flower should bow its head, that an operation may take place 

 which is necessary in order that the herb should produce seed 

 after its kind : and that, after this fecundation, its vegetable 

 health requires that it should lift its head again and stand erect. 

 Kow, if the mass of the earth had been gixater or less, the force 

 of gravity would have been different ; in that case, the strength 

 of fibre in the snowdrop, as it is, would have been too much or 

 too little ; the plant could not bow or raise its head at the right 

 time, fecundation could not take place, and its family would 

 have become extinct with the first individual that was planted, 

 because its " seed" would not have been " in itself," and there 

 fore could not have reproduced itself, and its creation would 

 haA^e been a failure. Now, if we see such a perfect adaptation, 

 such exquisite adjustment in the case of one of the smallest 

 flowers of the field, how much more may we not expect " com- 

 pensation " in the atmosphere and the ocean, upon the right 

 adjustment and due performance of which depends not only the 

 life of that plant, but the well-being of every individual that is 

 found in the entire vegetable and animal kingdoms of the world ? 

 When the east winds blow along the Atlantic coast for a little 

 w^hile, they bring us air saturated with moisture from the Gulf 

 Stream, and we complain of the sultry, oppressive, heavy atmo- 

 sphere; the invalid grows worse, and the well man feels ill, 

 because, when he takes this atmosphere into his lungs, it is 

 already so charged with moisture that it cannot take up and 



