270 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA. 



man, and attune his heart to goodness. Every thing around him 

 fixes his attention and increases his astonishment. 



771. " If all the outbreathings of fieartfelt emotion which the 

 contemplation of nature forces from the sailor were recorded in the 

 log-books, how much farther should we be advanced in the knowl- 

 edge of the natural state of the sea ! Once wandering over the 

 ocean, he begins to be impressed by the grand natural tableau 

 around him with feelings deep and abiding. The most splendid 

 forecastle is lost in the viewless surface, and brings home to us 

 the knowledge of our nothingness ; the greatest ship is a plaything 

 for the billows, and the slender keel seems to threaten our exist- 

 ence every moment. But when the eye of the mind is permitted 

 to wander through space and into the depths of the ocean, and is 

 able to form a conception of Infinity and of Omnipotence, then it 

 knows no danger ; it is elevated — it comprehends itself. The dis- 

 tances of the heavenly bodies are correctly estimated ; and, en- 

 lightened by astronomy, with the aid of the art of navigation, of 

 which Maury's Wind and Current Charts form an important part, 

 the shipmaster marks out his way over the ocean just as securely 

 as any one can over an extended heath. He directs his course 

 toward the Cape Verd Islands, and is carried there by the lively 

 trade-wind. Yet beyond the islands, sooner or later, according to 

 what month it is, the clear skies begin to be clouded, the trade- 

 wind abates and becomes unsteady, the clouds heap up, the thun- 

 der is heard, heavy rains fall ; finally, the stillness is death-like, 

 and we have entered the belt of calms. This belt moves toward 

 the north from May to September. It is a remarkable phenome- 

 non that the annual movements of the trades and calm belts from 

 south to north, and back again, do not directly follow the sun in 

 its declination, but appear to wait until the temperature of the sea- 

 water puts it in motion. The trades and the belt of calms do not 

 decline before the temperature of 80° of the water in the north 

 Atlantic Ocean turns it southward, and in the spring they do not 

 go northward until the temperature of 80° returns it thence. Is it 

 not as if the atmosphere and the ocean were united in marriage, 

 and go hand in hand to stand by and to care for each other, so 

 that they may fulfill all their duties together ? 



