THE EARTH ;j 



instance, the quantity of whose discharge into the sea, is known to be 

 one cubic mile of water in twenty-six days. Now it will be found, 

 apon a rude computation, from the quantity of ground the Po, with 

 its influent streams, covers, that all the rivers of the world furnish 

 about two thousand times that quantity of water. In the space of a 

 year, therefore, they will have discharged into the sea about twenty- 

 six thousand cubic miles of water ; and not till eight hundred years, 

 will they have discharged as much water as is contained in the sea at 

 present. I have not troubled the reader with the odd numbers, lest 

 he should imagine I was giving precision to a subject that is incapable 

 of it. 



Thus great is the assemblage of waters diffused round our habitable 

 globe ; and yet immeasurable as they seem, they are mostly rendered 

 subservient to the necessities and the conveniences of so little a be- 

 ing as man. Nevertheless, if it should be asked whether they be 

 made for him alone, the question is not easily resolved. Some phi- 

 losophers have perceived so much analogy to man in the formation of 

 the ocean, that they have not hesitated to assert its being made for 

 him alone. The distribution of land and water,* say they, is admira- 

 ble : the one being laid against the other so skilfully, that there is a 

 just equipoise of the whole globe. Thus the Northern Ocean balances 

 against the Southern ; and the New Continent is an exact counter- 

 weight to the Old. As to any objection from the ocean's occupying 

 too large a share of the globe, they contend, that there could not have 

 been a smaller surface employed to supply the earth with a due share 

 of evaporation. On the other hand, some take the gloomy side of the 

 question ; they either magnify! its apparent defects ; or assert, that| 

 what seem defects to us, may be real beauties to some wiser order of 

 beings. They observe, that multitudes of animals are concealed in the 

 ocean, and but a small part of them are known ; the rest therefore, they 

 fail not to say, were certainly made for their own benefit, and not for 

 ours. How far either of these opinions be just, I will not presume to 

 determine ; but of this we are certain, that God has endowed us with 

 abilities to turn this great extent of waters to our own advantage. 

 He has made these things, perhaps, for other uses ; but he has given 

 us faculties to convert them to our own. The much agitated ques- 

 tion, therefore, seems to terminate here. We shall never know whether 

 the things of this world have been made for our use ; but we very 

 well know that we have been made to enjoy them. Let us then bold 

 ly affirm, that the earth, and all its 'wonders, are ours ; since we are 

 furnished with powers to force them into our service. Man is the 

 lord of all the sublunary creation ; the howling savage, the winding ser- 

 pent, with all the untameable and rebellious offspring of Nature, are 

 destroyed in the contest, or driven at a distance from his habitations. 

 The extensive and tempestuous ocean, instead of limiting or dividing 

 his power, only serves to assist his industry, and enlarge the sphoro 

 of his enjoyments. Its billows, and its monsters, instead of present- 

 ing a scene of terror, only call up the courage of this little intrepid 

 being ; and the greatest danger that man now fears on the deep, is 



* Dtrham Physico-Theol. f Bumet's Theory, passim. \ Pope's Ethic Epistles, passun 



