142 THE RIVER. 



the active servant of man ; and one of the greatest 

 means of intercourse, and, consequently, of civilization. 

 The spots where man first put forth his powers as a 

 rational being, were on the banks of rivers ; and, if no 

 Euphrates had rolled its waters to the Indian Ocean, 

 and no Nile its flood to the Mediterranean, the learning 

 of the Chaldeans and the wisdom of the Egyptians 

 would never have shone forth ; and the western world, 

 which is indebted to them for the rudiments of science 

 and the spirit that leads to the cultivation of science, 

 might have still been in a state of ignorance and bar- 

 barity no way superior to that of the nations of Aus- 

 tralia, where the want of rivers separates the people 

 into little hordes, and prevents that general intercourse 

 which is essential to even a very moderate degree of 

 civilization. 



The river is a minister of health and purity. It 

 carries off the superabundant moisture, which, if stag- 

 nating on the surface of the ground, would be injurious 

 both to plants and animals. It carries off to the sea, 

 those saline products, which result from animal and 

 vegetable decomposition, and which soon convert into 

 desarts those places where there are no streams. 

 When the alkalis and alkaline earths, that enter into 

 the composition of organized bodies, are once united 

 with the more powerful acids, they cease to be ca- 

 pable of again forming part of the living structure. 

 Lime, which, chiefly combined with phosphoric acid, 

 enters largely into the composition of bones, com- 

 bines more intimately with sulphuric acid, and is then 

 unavailing for animal purposes. It is the same with 

 those alkalis which enter into the composition of plants 



