BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 115 



and untingcd state, as to enable them to distinguish 

 each other, and the numerous inanimate objects 

 which are to be found in it, by their colour. 



The bottom of the sea being supposed to resemble 

 the surface of the dry land, these inequalities in its 

 depth which occasion the mariner to be so much on 

 the alert, may easily be accounted for But if these 

 are the causes of the deceitful shallows and danger- 

 ous rocks, it must not be forgotten, that to these also 

 we owe the deep unfathomable gulfs over which the 

 vessel glides in safety, and those numerous islands 

 which adorn and diversify the surface of the ocean. 



T/ic Uses of the Ocean. 



Adoring own 



The hand Almighty, who its charmell'd bed 

 Immeasurable sunk, and pour'd abroad, 

 Fenc'd with eternal mounds, the fluid sphere 

 With every wind to waft large commerce on^ 

 Join pole to pole, consociate sever'd worlds, 

 And link in bonds of intercourse and love 

 Earth's universal family." 



The Ocean, as we have already observed, is the 

 great reservoir of nature, the mighty source of eva- 

 poration, which supplies the earth with fertility, by 

 causing the clouds to drop down fatness " It is," 

 in the words of an elegant admirer of Nature's 

 works, " the capacious cistern of the universe, which 

 admits as into a receptacle, and distributes as a re- 

 servoir, whatever waters the whole globe. There is 



