212 PHYSICAL SCIENCE BK. v 



any district that has not some particular wind that 

 arises in it and falls not far from it. 



XVIII 



1 WHEREFORE among the other works of Providence 

 this one must be regarded as worthy of all admira- 

 tion. Heaven had many purposes in view in 

 devising the winds and distributing them through 

 all the varied quarters of the earth. The first object 

 was to prevent the atmosphere from becoming 

 gross ; by their constant tossing the winds were 

 meant to render it beneficial, a source of life to 

 those who were to breathe it. In the second place, 

 they were to supply the earth with rain, and at the 



2 same time to restrain excess of rain. This they 

 accomplish by now gathering, now scattering the 

 clouds, so that the rainfall should be fairly distributed 

 over the whole world. The south wind drives it 

 toward Italy, the north sends it back to Africa. 

 The Etesian winds will not suffer the clouds to settle 

 in our quarter ; but yet the whole of India and 

 Ethiopia are watered with constant rain during the 

 period of their prevalence. Moreover, crops could 

 not be gathered in unless the worthless elements 

 were winnowed by the blast from the good grain 

 with which it is mixed. The breeze is needed, too, 

 to rouse the seed and bring to light the latent 

 fruit, by causing it to burst through its covering, 

 those wrappings which the farmers call follicles. 



3 Furthermore, the wind has established intercom- 

 munication among all the different nations, and has 

 united tribes far removed from each other in place. 



A great service is this that nature here renders, did 



