BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 113 



more remote from the habitations of men, may ajso 

 be of use to the mariner in the midnight gloom, by 

 enabling him to steer clear of impending dangers. 

 The luminous appearance of the surface of the ocean, 

 during the obscurity of the night, has been remarked 

 by navigators, and is a curious phenomenon, which 

 has long exercised the sagacity of philosphcrs; but, 

 without enquiring into the cause of this singular phos- 

 phoric property of the waters, by which they are il- 

 luminated, and rendered more visible among break- 

 ers, or where the greatest agitation prevails, we must 

 allow that it, as well as the noise which they make 

 in a state of turbulence, has been wisely imparted 

 to the waves of the deep ; for, in the words of that 

 elegant writer already quoted, " How many vessels 

 would perish amid the darkness, were it not for 

 those miraculous beacons, kindled by Providence 

 upon the rocks!" 



We have already had occasion to notice that law 

 of nature by which fluids, when put out of order, 

 have an uniform tendency to regain their level ; and 

 it is to this law that we must ascribe the facility with 

 which the track of a ship, in the midst of the sea, is 

 closed up. But for this, what a rugged and mis- 

 shapen mass must the surface of the ocean long ago 

 have appeared ! It is, however, wisely ordered other- 

 wise ; and while the plough of the husbandman leaves 

 the deepened furrows open in the stubborn glebe, 

 those occasioned by the humblest bark or lightest 

 skiff in the watery element, as soon as she 

 passed, are quickly swallowed up. 

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