THE EARTH .63 



ana.ogy to man ii) t'lie formation of tlie ocean, ih-.A ilic",- liav<; not 

 hesitated to assert its being made for him alone. The distribu- 

 tion of land and water,- say they, is admirable ; the one be- 

 ing laid against the other so skilfully, that there is a just equi- 

 jioise of the whole globe. Thus the Northern ocean balances 

 a rninst the Southern ; and the New Continent is an exact 

 c'ounterwi.'ight to the Old. As to any objection from the ocean's 

 occupying too large a share of the globe, they contend, that 

 fhere could not have been a smaller surface employed to supply 

 the earth with a due share of evaporation. On the other hand, 

 some take the gloomy side of the question ; they either magnify^ 

 its apparent defects ; or assert, that what seems defects to us, 

 may be real beauties to some wiser order of beings.'' They ob- 

 serve, that multitudes of animals are concealed in the ocean, and 

 but a small part of them are known ; the rest, therefore, they 

 fail not to say, were certainly made for their own benefit, and 

 not for ours. How far either of these opinions be just, I will 

 not presume to determine ; but of this we are certain, that God 

 has endowed us v,ith abilities to turn this great extent of waters 

 to our own advantage. He has made these things, perhaps, for 

 other uses ; but be has given us faculties to convert them to our 

 own. This much agitated question, therefore, seems to termi- 

 nate here. We shall never know whether the things of this 

 world have been made for our use ; but we very well know that 

 we have been made to enjoy them. Let us then boldly affirm, 

 that the earth, and all its wonders, are ours ; since we are fur- 

 nished v.'ith powers to force them into our ser\ace. Man is the 

 lord of all the sublunary creation ; the howling savage, the wind- 

 ing serpent, with all the untameable and rebellious offspring of 

 Nature are destroyed in the contest, or driven at a distance 

 from his habitations. The extensive and tempestuous ocean, 

 instead of limiting or dividing his power, only serves to assist 

 his industry, and enlarge the sphere of his enjoyments. Its bil- 

 lows and its monsters, instead of presenting a scene of terioi, 

 only call up the courage of this little intrepid being; and the 

 greatest danger that man now fears on the deep, is from his fel- 

 low creatures. Indeed, when I consider the human race as 



9 Derham's Physico-Tlicol. 3 Burnet's Theory, psa^ini. 



4 Piipi-'s Ethic r.pistlcs, passim. 



