MAN AND NATURE. 267 



part of the history of mankind ; and bring it into such 

 connexion with the physical sciences as to increase the 

 likelihood of practical usefulness hereafter. We may 

 remark further, that many of the physical relations just 

 adverted to, complex though they are, may be reduced 

 to simpler and more familiar terms for the objects 

 of our argument. The single word, Climate, for in- 

 stance, expresses one of the most important relations 

 of man to the natural world around him a relation 

 which concerns human existence in its every part. But 

 this word, Climate, taken in its largest sense, compre- 

 hends within itself all those elements and attributes of 

 matter and force, the mutual influences and actions of 

 which produce the phenomena so familiar to us under 

 this single expression. Earth, water, and air as they 

 are acted upon by heat and light, and more obscurely 

 by electricity, the chemical and cohesive forces, gravi- 

 tation and the axial rotation of the globe furnish the 

 material for all those complex conditions of seasons, 

 land and ocean winds, tides, currents, rains, thunder- 

 storms and hurricanes, snow and ice, amidst which we 

 live, and which we are ever seeking (civilised and 

 savage man alike) to mould into what may best con- 

 duce to the well-being of life. Even seen through its 

 more homely details of habitation, clothing, and food, 

 there is something great in this unceasing toil and 

 struggle with the elements around. But the contest 

 becomes of higher kind when man takes these very 

 elements into his service,, and gains fresh dominion 

 over the earth through their aid. Seeing how various 

 and vast are the forces acting, and the materials acted 



