84 SEASIDE DIVINITY. 



description, and which the whole heart of man is 

 scarcely sufficient to embrace." 



One of the first ideas which a contemplation of 

 the ocean originates is that of itsVast extent, and 

 a comparison is naturally suggested between the 

 relative extent of sea and land. On examining a 

 map of the world, we observe that from the fortieth 

 degree of south latitude to the Antarctic pole, the 

 earth is almost wholly covered with water. We per- 

 ceive also that the ocean predominates between the 

 western shores of the New World and the eastern 

 coasts of the Old, containing but a few groups of 

 islands throughout the immense intervening space 

 of water. The proportion of the solid to the fluid 

 surface of the globe is, according to Eigaud, as 

 100 to 270, in other words nearly three-fourths of 

 the globe are covered with water. 



Now these relative proportions of sea and land 

 are no more accidental than the beautiful and 

 highly organised structures of an animal's body, 

 every part of which affords an instance of wise and 

 beneficent design; for it has been clearly estab- 

 lished by Humboldt and other distinguished 

 philosophers, that the relation thus subsisting 

 between the solid and fluid parts of the globe 

 exercises a most important influence on the dis- 

 tribution of temperature, the variations of atmo- 

 spheric pressure, the direction of the winds, and 

 the quantity of moisture contained in the air, with 

 which the development of vegetation is so essen- 

 tially connected. 



Another consideration which suggests itself is 



