i 



SCIENTIFIC TRACTS. 



V. / 



NUMBER I. 



THE ATMOSPHERE. 



FEW subjects are more important, or less under- 

 stood, than the atmosphere we breathe. As it surrounds 

 the earth, and presses with great weight upon its surface, 

 it comes in contact with everything, and bears a most 

 interesting relation to every animal that walks upon the 

 earth, swims in the sea, flies in the air, or creeps in the 

 dust to every plant that is pleasant to the sight, or good 

 for food and to every mineral that glitters in its bed, 

 adorns a cabinet, or is used in the arts. 



It moves our lungs, circulates in our veins, warms us 

 in our fires, enlivens the midnight lamp, and makes it an 

 agreeable substitute for the light of day, fans us in the 

 breeze, terrifies us in the tornado, conducts sound, now 

 in the soft whisper, the voice of intelligent conversation, 

 the flashes of the orator, or enchanting music, now in 

 the roar of the cannon, the groans of the dying, or ter- 

 rific thunder ; it wafts the ship, heaves the placid ocean 

 into billows, takes the heat of the equator and carries it 

 to the poles, and exchanges it for a cooling breeze, which 

 it kindly returns to temper the scorching rays of the 

 torrid sun ; or, using the language of an elegant French 

 writer, ' In the use of the atmosphere, man is the only 

 being who gives it all the modulations of which it is 

 susceptible. With his voice alone, he imitates the 

 hissing, the cries, and the melody of all animals, while 

 he enjoys the gift of speech denied to every other. To 

 air he also sometimes communicates sensibility ; he 

 makes it sigh in the pipe, lament in the flute, threaten 

 in the trumpet, and animates to the tone of his passions, 

 even the solid brass, the boxtree, and the reed. In a 

 word, he harnesses it to his car, and obliges it to waft 

 him over the stormy billows of the ocean.' 



