BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 173 



swept from their foundations ; navies are rent from 

 their anchors ; trees are torn up by the roots. This 

 we call wind ; and whether its effects appear in the 

 fury of the gale, the violence of the hurricane, the 

 impetuosity of the whirlwind, the dryness of the har- 

 mattan, the deleteriousness of the sirocco, or the mor- 

 tifying influence of the samiel, it becomes us not to 

 repine at the dispensations of the Almighty, or ac- 

 count those the most deplorable evils, which are wise- 

 ly sent us for the best of purposes. 



We have already noticed the bad effects that would 

 accrue, were il not for the agitation of the ocean ; but 

 more dreadful would be the consequences, 



Did neither air nor ocean feel the wind. 



Motion is the soul of the universe; it is as necessary 

 in the air as in the ocean, and both are no less indis- 

 pensable than the motion of the sap of plants, and 

 the circulation of the blood in animals. 



It is, however, happily so ordered, that where pu- 

 trefaction in a state of quiescence would soon prevail, 

 wholesome breezes and salutary gales alternately 

 spring up, to sweep destruction from the aerial fluid, 

 and where heat is felt to an alarming degree, the 

 atmosphere extends its airy wings to fan a fainting 

 world. 



" This principle, as Dr. Gregory observes, we 

 find realized on a great scale in what are called the 

 trade winds, which blow constantly from east to 

 west, near the equator. The sun rises in the east 



