THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER. 



all nature would soon be thrown into confu 

 sion. The vapours which are exhaled from the sea 

 by the heat of the sun would be suspended, and 

 remain for ever fixed over those places from 

 whence they arose. For want of this agitation 

 of the air, which now scatters and disperses the 

 clouds over every region, the sun would con 

 stantly scorch some districts, and be for ever hid 

 from others ; the balance of nature would be de 

 stroyed ; navigation would be useless, and we could 

 no longer enjoy the productions of different cli 

 mates. In fine, were the atmosphere capable of 

 being frozen, or converted into a solid mass, as 

 all other fluids are, (and we know no reason why 

 it should not be subject to congelation, but the 

 will ofthe Creator,) the lives of every animal in 

 the air, the waters, and the earth, would, in a 

 few moments, be completely extinguished. But 

 the admirable adjustment of every circumstance, 

 in relation to this useful element, produces all the 

 beneficial effects which we now experience, and 

 strikingly demonstrates, that the intelligent Con 

 triver of all things is &quot; wonderful in counsel, and 

 excellent in working.&quot; 



From the instances now stated, we may plainly 

 perceive, that if the Almighty had not a particular 

 regard to the happiness of his intelligent offspring, 

 and to the comfort of every animated existence ; 

 or, if he wished to inflict summary punishment 

 on a wicked world, he could easily effect, by a 

 very slight change in the constitution of the at 

 mosphere, the entire destruction of the human 

 race, and the entire conflagration of the great 

 globe they inhabit, throughout all its elementary 

 regions. He has only to extract &amp;lt;v..e of its con 

 stituent parts, and the grand catastrophe is at 

 once accomplished. With what a striking pro- 

 priety and emphasis, then, do the inspired wri 

 ters declare, that, &quot; In Him we live, and move, 

 and have our being ;&quot; and that &quot; in His hand is 

 the soul of every living thing, and the breath of 

 all mankind !&quot; 



A great variety of other admirable properties 

 is possessed by the atmosphere, of which I shall 

 briefly notice only the following : It is the ve 

 hicle of smells, by which we become acquainted 

 with the qualities of the food which is set before 

 us, and learn to avoid those places which are 

 damp, unwholesome, and dangerous. It is the 

 medium of sounds, by means of which knowledge 

 is conveyed to our minds. Its undulations, like 

 so many couriers, run for ever backwards and 

 forwards, to convey our tnoughts to others, and 

 theirs to us ; and to bring news of transactions 

 which frequent!} occur at a considerable distance. 

 A few strokes on a large bell, through the minis 

 tration ofthe air, will convey signals of distress, 

 or of joy, in a quarter of a minute, to the popula 

 tion of a city containing a hundred thousand in 

 habitants. So that the air may be considered 

 as the conveyer ofthe thoughts of mankind, which 



are the cement of society. It transmits to our eara 

 all the harmonies of music, and expresses every 

 passion of the soul: it swells the notes ofthe 

 nightingale, and distributes alike to every car the 

 pleasures which arise from the harmonious sounds 

 ofa concert. It produces the blue colour ofthe sky 

 and is the cause ofthe morning and evening twi 

 light, by its property of bending the rays of light, 

 and reflecting them in all directions. It forms an 

 essential requisite for carrying on all the pro 

 cesses of the vegetable kingdom, and serves for 

 the production of clouds, rain, and dew, which 

 nourish and fertilize the earth. In short, it would 

 be impossible to enumerate all the advantages we 

 derive from this noble appendage to our world. 

 Were the earth divested of its atmosphere, or 

 were only two or three of its properties changed 

 or destroyed, it would be left altogether unfit for 

 the habitation of sentient beings. Were it di 

 vested of its undulating quality, we should be de 

 prived of all the advantages of speech and con 

 versation of all the melody of the feathered sonf 

 sters, and of all the pleasures of music ; and, like 

 the deaf and dumb, we could have no power ol 

 communicating our thoughts but by visible signs. 

 Were it deprived of its reflective powers, the sun 

 would appear in one part of the sky of a daz 

 zling brightness, while all around would appear as 

 dark as midnight, and the stars would be visible at 

 noon-day. Were it deprived of its refractive 

 powers, instead of the gradual approach of the 

 day and the night which we now experience, at 

 sunrise, we should be transported all at once from 

 midnight darkness to the splendour of noon-day 

 and, at sunset, should make a sudden transition 

 from the splendours of day to all the horrors of 

 midnight, which would bewilder the traveller in 

 his journey, and strike the creation with amaze 

 ment. In fine, were the oxygen of the atmos 

 phere completely extracted, destruction would 

 seize on all the tribes ofthe living world, through 

 out every region of earth, air, and sea. 



Omitting at present the consideration of an in 

 definite variety of other particulars, which suggest 

 themselves on this subject, I shall just notice one 

 circumstance more, which has a relation both to 

 the waters and to the atmosphere. It is a well- 

 known law of nature, that all bodies are expanded 

 by heat, and contracted by cold. There is only 

 one exception to this law which exists in the 

 economy of our globe, and that is, ike expansion 

 of ivater, in the act of freezing. While the 

 parts of every other body are reduced in bulk, 

 and their specific gravity increased by the appli 

 cation of cold ; water, on the contrary, when 

 congealed into ice, is increased in bulk, and be 

 comes ofa less specific gravity than the surround- 

 ing water, and, therefore, swims upon its surface. 

 Now, had the case been otherwise : had water, 

 when deprived of a portion of its heat, followed 

 the general law of nature, and, like all other 



