THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN. 257 



fault in the suspension in light air of the millions of tons 

 which descend from apparent mist. 



The clouds fairly weep over our presumptuous sciences ; 

 and under the pelting of their tears I strove to possess my 

 soul with patience regarding the mystery of the rain, and, 

 with the truly wise and learned Job, to put my hand rever- 

 ently on my mouth before the power of Almighty God, and 

 still ask, with the inspired writer, " Hath the rain a father ? 

 or who hath begotten the drops of the dew ?" I almost be- 

 lieve that our sciences are sufficient for the phenomena of 

 Nature in her gentler moods ; but they fail to explain when 

 the tornado overturns temples and rends armadas; when 

 the imponderable electricity thunders in the clouds, and shat- 

 ters to dust the rocks and man's proudest monuments ; when 

 the influences of creative power in the earthquake play at 

 town-ball with continents, and bowl the isles of the sea as a 

 child's marble. At such displays of power, we fall from our 

 learning upon an " inscrutable Providence," or say, " excep- 

 tional phenomena in no way affect the fixed laws of sci- 

 ence," etc. Gravitation brought the rain to the deck, I ad- 

 mit; but what sustained the enormous flood against gravi- 

 tation! The captain concluded that the torrent was the 

 breaking of a water-spout ; but this, again, was taking refuge 

 in a name explanatory of nothing. Pray what is a water- 

 spout ? 



