VARIABLE WINDS. 83 



division. When it left the Earth it had acquired a 

 very strong motion towards the east, not so great 

 as that of the Earth itself, but great enough to be 

 equivalent to a furious gale from west to east. If 

 we suppose this air to redescend whence it rose, 

 it would, on reaching the equator, find the Earth 

 going too fast for it. It would lag a little, and be- 

 come a gentle easterly breeze. But now, throw 

 aside this supposition ; our breeze rushes north ; 

 at lat. 30 it has got cooled, and swoops down upon 

 the Earth ; but the Earth at this latitude is moving 

 much slower than at the equator; the wind, however, 

 has lost little or none of its easterly velocity. On 

 reaching the Earth it rushes east much faster than 

 the Earth itself, and thus becomes a westerly gale. 

 There are, however, many other agents at work, 

 which modify and disturb what we may call the 

 legitimate flow of the wind ; and these agents are 

 diverse in different places, so that the atmosphere 

 is turned out of a straight course, and is caused to 

 deflect, to halt, and to turn round : sometimes sweep- 

 ing off, as if in haste; at other times pausing, as if in 

 uncertainty ; and often whirling round, as if in mad 

 confusion. To the observer, who sees only the partial 

 effects around his own person, all this commotion 

 seems but the disorderly action of blind chance; but 

 to the eye of Him who sees the end from the begin- 

 ning, we may certainly conclude that naught is seen 

 but order and perfect harmony. And to the eye of 

 Science there now begins to appear, in what was 



