His CAPTORS. 277 



The Wrecks of Opinions in Philosophy and Religion. 



the edges of the Gulf Stream, than in any other 

 part of the ocean ; squalls are so violent there, 

 the lightning so terrific, and the wind and cur- 

 rent so often opposed, as to raise an ugly, chop- 

 ping, " head-beat" sea, that, if long continued, 

 will beat to pieces, or start dangerous leaks in 

 the very best of ships. 



Wrecks, too, once made there, and ships 

 abandoned without foundering, will stay^for a 

 long time in the course of the stream, being 

 carried along and kept within it by the force 

 of the current. Some captains think that the 

 same wreck may sometimes go the whole round 

 of the stream, being kept along in it to where 

 it is lost, or turns southward by the Western 

 Islands, then taken by the current from the 

 north, and borne to the south and west by the 

 northeast trades, until it falls into the identical 

 Gulf Stream again, or a current sitting into 

 it off the Windward Islands of the West In- 

 dies. 



Just so in the political, religious, and philo- 

 sophical world, you will see the wrecks of certain 

 errors and fallacies exploded, dismasted, water- 

 logged, or quite foundered in one age, reappear 

 in another on the revolving current of opinion. 



