THE ATMOSPHERE. 101 



it again, then that sea, in the course of time, would dry up, and 

 plants and animals there would all perish for the want of water. 



217. In the sheets of water which we find distributed over 

 that and every other inhabitable inland basin, we see reservoirs 

 or evaporating surfaces just sufficient for the supply of that de- 

 gree of moisture which is best adapted to the well-being of the 

 plants and animals that people such basins. 



218. In other parts of the earth stiU, we find places, as the Des- 

 ert of Sahara, in which neither evaporation nor precipitation takes 

 place, and in which we find neither plant nor animal. 



219. Adaptations. — In contemplating the system of terres- 

 trial adaptations, these researches teach one to regard the mount- 

 ain ranges and the great deserts of the earth as the astronomer 

 does the counterpoises to his telescope — though they be mere dead 

 weights, they are, nevertheless, necessary to make the balance 

 complete, the adjustments of his machine perfect. These coun- 

 terpoises give ease to the motions, stability to the performance, 

 and accuracy to the workings of the instrument. They are "cotti- 

 pensations.'^'' 



220. Whenever I turn to contemplate the works of nature, I 

 am struck with the admirable system of compensation, with the 

 beauty and nicety with which every department is poised by the 

 others ; things and principles are meted out in directions appar- 

 ently the most opposite, but in proportions so exactly balanced and 

 nicely adjusted that results the most harmonious are produced. 



221. It is by the action of opposite and compensating forces 

 that the earth is kept in its orbit, and the stars are held suspend- 

 ed in the azure vault of heaven ; and these forces are so exquis- 

 itely 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 stand in its proper place at the proper moment. 



222. Nay, philosophy teaches us that when the little snow- 

 drop, which in our garden-walks we see raising its beautiful 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. 



