86 SEASIDE DIVINITY. 



which give them their briny taste, are left behind. 

 Purer than from the finest artificial still, the sea 

 water rises up in the air day and night unceasingly, 

 invisible and impalpable, yet in millions of tons. 

 Even the surface of the ice-covered lake, or the 

 iceberg on the snow-capped mountains, throw 

 forth their contributions to the great aerial reser- 

 voir of moisture; for it is remarkable that the 

 surface of the hardest ice, in the coldest weather, 

 evaporates nearly as fast as if it were a movable 

 fluid. It is obvious that the ocean, as the source 

 of the supply of fresh water, is indispensable to the 

 existence of animal and vegetable life. The sub- 

 stance of all vegetables consists to a great extent 

 of water : the same remark is applicable to all 

 animal bodies ; the body of man himself, " the 

 measurer of the sea, and the land and the in- 

 numerable shores," * is formed of but little solid 

 matter, a very large proportion of his frame being 

 water more or less modified. But the circumstance 

 that water thus held in solution in the air, is not 

 necessary only for the supply which animals and 

 vegetables demand for their structure, it is re- 

 quisite even for the respiration of animals (for ex- 

 periment has shown that an atmosphere absolutely 

 dry is unsuited to breathing,) these considerations 

 alone are sufficient to exhibit the importance of 

 the ocean in the economy of nature. 



There is another aspect in which we may regard 

 the ocean. It is the great medium of intercourse 



* Hor. 



