only repress the rolling bilious, but speak (lie amazing 

 majesty of the Maker. But in other places the Creator 

 'shews he is confined to no expedient. He bids a bank 

 of despicable sand repel the most furious shocks of as- 

 sauliing seas. And though the waves toss themselves, 

 they cannot prevail : though they roar, yet they cannot 

 pass over. 



" Nay, is it not remarkable, that sand is a more effectual 

 barrier against the sea than rock ? Accordingly the sea 

 is continually gaining upon a rocky shore : but it is con- 

 tinually losing on a sandy shore, unless where it sets in 

 with an eddie. Thus it has been gaining, from age to 

 age, upon the isle of Portland and the Land's-Ehd in 

 Cornwall, undermining, throwing down, and swallowing 

 up one huge rock after another. Mean time the sandy 

 shores both on our southern and western coast?, gain 

 continually upon the sea. 



"Beneath the rocks frequently lies a smooth, level sand, 

 almost as firm as a well-compacted causeway ; insomuch 

 that the tread of a horse scarce impresses it, and the 

 waters never penetrate it. Without this wise contri- 

 vance the searching waves would insinuate into the heart 

 of the earth; and the earth itelf would in some places 

 be hollow as a honeycomb, in other bibulous as a sponge. 

 But this closely cemented pavement is like claying the 

 bottom of the universal canal ; so that the returning 

 tides only consolidate its substance, and prevent the sun 

 from cleaving it with chinks. 



" Here the main rolls its surges from world to world. 

 What a spectacle of magnificence and terror ! How it 

 fills the mind and amazes the imagination ! It is the 

 most august object under the whole Heaven. What are 

 all the canals on earth, to this immense reservatory 1 

 What are the proudest palaces on earth, to yonder con- 

 cave of the skies ? W hat the most pompous illumina- 

 tions, to this source of day ? They -are a spark, an 

 atom, a drop. Nay in every spark and atom and drop, 



