96 SEASIDE DIVINITY. 



therefore intimately related. The saltness of the 

 ocean is not the only cause of its currents, it is 

 true; for the difference of temperature in its 

 waters must produce currents, as differences of 

 the same kind in the atmosphere produce winds ; 

 yet there is reason to believe that the saltness of 

 the sea materially aids those currents, and thus 

 ministers to a vast and most important part of 

 the economy of creation, and illustrates in a most 

 remarkable manner that divine foresight by which 

 in thousands of instances we find provision is 

 made for conditions and necessities to arise at 

 some long subsequent period. Without entering 

 into this interesting but abstruse subject more 

 minutely than the nature of this work permits 

 some further particulars may here be stated. 



It has been already stated that there is some 

 difference in the degree of saltness in the sea in 

 different places. But this is owing to local causes. 

 The general rule is that the constituents of sea 

 water are extremely uniform in their proportions. 

 This is most singularly illustrated by experiment. 

 Thus, for example, in the Ked Sea there is no 

 rain, and no rivers empty themselves into it, but 

 the process of evaporation is constantly going on 

 from its surface, by which the fresh water is ab- 

 stracted and the marine salts are left behind. 

 We should expect, therefore, that the waters of 

 this sea must be salter than that of other parts 

 of the ocean. But the water of the Eed Sea is 

 not salter than the ocean near the mouth of the 

 Amazon, a region where the amount of rain is 



