THB CHRISTIAN NATURALIST. 45 



rebuke the ignorance of man, and among these we find 

 the following, ** Hath the rain a father, or who hath 

 begotten the drops of dew ? Who hath put wisdom in 

 the inward parts ? or who hath given understanding to 

 the heart ? "Who can number the clouds in wisdom ? 

 or who can stay the bottles of heaven ?" Questions, 

 such as these are intended to make it manifest, that the 

 curtain of a deep and unchangeable mystery, will al- 

 ways hang over much of this part of the works of 

 God. Meteorology is still a science that has made but 

 comparatively small advances even in modern times. 

 Much more it is true is known of this and every part of 

 nature, than in the days of the patriarch Job. The dis- 

 coveries of Electricity and Chemistry have thrown much 

 light upon some of the laws which govern the atmos- 

 phere. Under the guidance of these sciences, evapora- 

 tion is believed to be a gradual solution of water in 

 air, produced and supported, as other solutions are, 

 through the agency of attraction, heat and motion.* 



* Evaporation is one of the most important considerations in 

 the whole natural history of air, but it is at the same time one 

 of the most difficult, because we are not acquainted with^that 

 particular property, by means of which the atmo spheric fluid is 

 enabled to take up moisture from the surface of water, and of 

 all humid substances, and again to deposits this moisture in rain 



