86 THE EARTH. 



to his comfort or luxury all freely given by the hand 

 of his Heavenly Father for his well-being and delight, 

 that he may lack no excuse to worship and adore Him, and 

 this delightful earth, as Milton says : 



Brought forth the tender grass, whose verdure clad 



Her universal face with pleasant green, 



Then herbs of every leaf, that sudden flower'd 



Opening their various colours, and made gay 



Her bosom smelling sweet : and these scarce blown, 



Forth flourish'd thick the clustering vine, forth crept 



The swelling gourd, up stood the corny reed 



Embattled in her field, and the humble shrub, 



And bush with frizzled hair implicit : last 



Ttose as in dance the stately trees, and spread 



Their branches hung with copious fruit, or gemmed 



Their blossoms ; with high woods the hills were crowned. 



With tufts the valleys, and each fountain side, 



With borders, long the rivers : that earth now 



Seem'd like to heaven, a seat were gods might dwell 



Or wander with delight, and love to haunt 



Her sacred shades. 



After all these various elevations and depressions, the 

 land remains at this present time in the form of large tracts 

 occupying about a third of the superficial area of our globe. 

 The largest tract is made up of Europe, Asia, and Africa, 

 which constitute one continuous area, Africa being almost 

 severed from the others, but still united by the Isthmus of 

 Suez ; the tract next in size to this is made up of North 

 and South America, these again are nearly severed, but still 

 united by the Isthmus of Panama or Darien; next come 

 Australia and Greenland, but these, although very large, 

 are yet not to be compared in size with the former two ; 

 there are numerous other large islands, as Borneo, New 

 Guinea, New Zealand, Madagascar, Iceland, England, 

 Ireland, &c., and scores of smaller ones. 



The temperature of the earth (as a general rule) is greatest 

 on the equator and diminishes gradually towards each pole, 

 but this is by no means invariable, for two places of the 

 same latitude may be very different in climate, and a 

 system of lines passing round the earth from east to west, 



