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SECTION VIII. 

 Observation of the Water and the Earth. 



NOTWITHSTANDING the length to which the pre- 

 ceding section has extended, it contains only a few 

 hints on an exceedingly limited number of those 

 conclusions relating to the agency of air and water 

 in the economy of nature, to which even the most 

 common observer must arrive, if he reflects as 

 well as observes. There is scarcely any thing 

 natural that happens, in which one or both of these 

 substances are not concerned, either as materials, 

 or as media by means of which other substances 

 are enabled to act upon each other. Thus, what- 

 ever we observe be it in the solid earth, down 

 to the bottom of the deepest mine be it in the 

 ocean, " deeper than plummet ever sounded" 

 be it in the atmosphere, as high as a foot can 

 climb or a wing cleave, a vapour ascend, or a 

 meteor be formed be it at any time, or at any 

 place be it in plants, from the little moulds of 

 which the sports or seeds probably circulate view- 

 less in every current of the air, every rush of the 

 water, every motion of sap in the plant, and every 

 pulse of life in the animal, to the giant pine of 

 Western America, which stands proudly in mid air, 

 towering over the forest, as some tall cliff does 

 o'er the pebbles at its base ; or the Indian fig, 

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