THE EARTH. 303 



seem to show any great speed ; and, on the con- 

 trary, we see these wind-measurers go round, 

 with great swiftness, when scarcely any damage 

 has followed from the storm. 



Such is the nature and the inconstancy of the 

 irregular winds with which we are best acquaint- 

 ed. But their effects are much more formidable 

 in those climates, near the tropics, where they 

 are often found to break in upon the steady 

 course of the trade-winds, and to mark their pas- 

 sage with destruction. With us the tempest is 

 but rarely known, and its ravages are registered 

 as an uncommon calamity ; but, in the countries 

 that lie between the tropics, and for a good space 

 beyond them, its visits are frequent, and its effects 

 anticipated. In these regions, the winds vary 

 their terrors ; sometimes involving all things in a 

 suffocating heat; sometimes mixing all the ele- 

 ments of fire, air, earth, and water together ; 

 sometimes, with a momentary swiftness, passing 

 over the face of the country, and destroying all 

 things in their passage; and sometimes raising 

 whole sandy deserts in one country, to deposit 

 them upon some other. We have little reason, 

 therefore, to envy these climates the luxuriance 

 of their soil, or the brightness of their skies. Our 

 own muddy atmosphere, that wraps us round in 

 obscurity, though it fails to gild our prospects 

 with sunshine, or our groves with fruitage, ne- 

 vertheless answers the calls of industry. They 

 may boast of a plentiful, but precarious harvest ; 

 while, with us, the labourer toils in a certain ex- 

 pectation of a moderate, but a happy return. 



