THE ELEMENTS. 24» 



how does it fall ? Not by the clouds behig all at once re- 

 converted mto water, and descending like a sheet ; not in 

 rushing down in columns from a spout ; but in moderate 

 drops, as from a colander Our watering-pots are made to 

 imitate showers of rain. Yet, a 'priori^ I should have thought 

 either of the two former methods more likely to have taken 

 place than the last. 



By respiration, flame, putrefaction, air is rendered unfit 

 foi the support of animal life. By the constant operation of 

 these corrupting principles, the whole atmosphere, if there 

 were no restoring causes, would come at length to be de- 

 prived of its necessary degree of purity. Some of these causes 

 seem to have been discovered, and their efficacy ascertained 

 by experiment ; and so far as the discovery has proceeded, it 

 opens to us a beautiful and a wonderful economy. Vegeta- 

 tion proves to be one of them. A sprig of mint, corked up 

 with a small portion of foul air and placed in the light, renders 

 it again capable of supporting light or flame. Here, there- 

 fore, is a constant circulation of benefits maintained between 

 the two great provinces of organized nature. The plant 

 purifies what the animal has poisoned ; in return, the con- 

 taminated air is more than ordinarily nutritious to the plant. 

 Agitation with ivater turns out to be another of these resto- 

 ratives. The foulest air, shaken in a bottle with water for a 

 sufficient length of time, recovers a great degree of its purity. 

 Here then, again, allowing for the scale upon which nature 

 works, we see the salutary effects of storms and tempests. 

 The yeasty waves which confound the heaven and the sea, 

 are doing the very thing which was done in the bottle. 

 Nothing can be of greater importance to the living creation, 

 than the salubrity of their atmosphere. It ought to recon- 

 cile us, therefore, to these agitations of the elements, of which 

 we sometimes deplore the consequences, to know that tliey 

 tend powerfully to restore to the air that purity Avhicli so 

 many causes are constantly impairing. 



II. In water, what ought not a little to be admired, are 



