THE SATELLITES. 177 



familiar with such contemplations, will, by one 

 anomaly, be driven from the persuasion that the 

 end which the arrangements of the satellites 

 seem suited to answer is really one of the ends 

 of their creation. 



CHAPTER VI. 

 The Stability of the Ocean. 



WHAT is meant by the stability of the ocean may 

 perhaps be explained by means of the following 

 illustration. If we suppose the whole globe of 

 the Earth to be composed of water, a sphere of 

 cork, immersed in any part of it, would come to 

 the surface of the water, except it were placed 

 exactly at the centre of the earth ; and even if it 

 were so placed, the slightest displacement of the 

 cork sphere would end in its rising and floating. 

 This would be the case whatever were the size of 

 the cork sphere, and even if it were so large as to 

 leave comparatively little room for the water; and 

 the result would be nearly the same, if the cork 

 sphere, when in its central position, had on its 

 surface prominences which projected above the 

 surface of the water. Now this brings us to the 

 case in which we have a globe resembling our 

 present earth, composed like it of water arid of 

 a solid centre, with islands and continents, but 

 having these solid parts all made of cork. And it 



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