AND RIVERS. 181 



mingles with the more copious flood of the river 

 which sweeps gallantly by, and on the banks whereof 

 Wealth builds his palace, and Science his temple, and 

 Religion her sacred fane ; we cannot help regard- 

 ing with lofty emotion that river when it thunders 

 over the steep, and stuns the country round with its 

 noise, but keeps it green and fresh with its ever- 

 showering drops, and whose estuary tempts man to 

 found his most goodly city, and harbour his most 

 powerful, his most wealth-collecting, his most 

 peace-compelling fleet ; but though these powerfully 

 draw the attention of the senses, and mightily ex- 

 cite and elevate the mind, there is an unseen return 

 of the waters which outdoes them all in the wonders 

 of its working. 



The atmosphere is usually and justly styled 

 " the breath" of every living thing ; but it is some- 

 thing more extensive and anterior to that ; and were 

 it to suspend its general evaporative power for even 

 a brief period of time, the very beginnings of life 

 would be cut off and its fountains dried up. All 

 the water which the rivers of the world roll to the 

 sea, all that slumbers in ponds and expands in lakes, 

 all that is caught in fountains, drawn from wells, or 

 in any way appropriated to the processes of the arts 

 or the purposes of life, all that supplies drink to the 

 whole animal race, and is breath, and life, and 

 clothing, and habitation to innumerable tribes ; all 

 that waters the fields, and sustains the existence of 

 every vegetable from the moss on the wall to the 

 monarch of the forest ; all that enters into the struc- 

 ture of plants and of animals, or which bears their 

 more immediate nourishment on its tide, or cleanses, 

 softens, and comforts them by its ablution ; nay, all 

 that enters into those stones or gems which glitter 

 so much, is brought on the wings of the wind, 

 mounts up through the viewless air ; and the more 

 vigorously that the countless thousands of active 

 powers, natural or artificial, are working, the more 

 Q 



