BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEN. 181 



The use of fogs and mists on the tender herbs, in 

 the absence of rain, is well known to the grazier and 

 agriculturist; and so sensible was the good man of 

 the land of Uz, of the importance of what some may 

 reckon among the inferior kinds of watery meteors, 

 (although it is the surest and most universal which 

 the wise Ruler of the world makes use of to render 

 the earth fruitful) that, when he asks the question, 

 " Has the rain a father?' he does not forget to add, 

 " Who has forgotten the drops of the dew?" 



From the clouds proceed not only those fertilizing 

 showers that drop down fatness, and the windy cur- 

 rents that, to a surprising degree, agitate the air in 

 warm climates, but, by intervening between the earth 

 and the scorching rays of the sun, they serve as 

 screens to protect from injury the grass and tender 

 herbs, and also act the part of conducting mediums, 

 by which the electric fluid is conveyed not only from 

 the atmosphere to the earth, and from the earth to 

 the atmosphere, but from one end of the heavens to 

 the other. 



Of all the blessings poured out of the treasures of 

 Providence, there is none, perhaps, of which man is 

 more sensible than that of rain. What an alteration 

 on the face of the earth does a seasonable shower 

 produce ! No wonder that the Psalmist, when con- 

 templating such a scene, breaks out in such language 

 as this: " Thou visitest the earth and waterest it: 

 thou makest it soft with showers : thou blessest the 

 sprinkling thereof: the little hills rejoice on every 

 side: the pastures are clothed with flocks: the val- 



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