^be mings of tbe TKainJ). 149 



heights, and sink it into the springs which nestle 

 there. And then, as these dried-out currents pass 

 down over the arid plains, the "wings of the wind" 

 bear them to moister regions to saturate them afresh 

 with the quickening drops of water. The winds set 

 in motion the vast currents which are flowing in the 

 deeps of the sea, and so add another to the great 

 climatic agencies. They do as much for the shallower 

 waters, it is the winds which are carving away the 

 shores of Cape Cod and Coney Island by setting on the 

 waves to do their work of destruction and of change. 



The winds may well be likened to the great 

 transportation systems which man has created. 

 What railways, rivers, canals, and the ocean are to 

 human industries and interests, by means of their 

 great trains of cars, their boats, and their steamships, 

 the winds are to the natural world. They are the 

 grand vehicles of exchange. They bear the products 

 of every zone to every other zone. They warm the 

 poles with the airs from the tropics. They cool 

 the tropics with airs from the poles. They transfer 

 the seeds of a thousand grasses and plants to new 

 fields, and sow the desolations with verdure. So also 

 they carry off the superheated airs of the earth's sur- 

 face on the " up-tracks " and bring them back cooled, 

 cleansed, revitalised, in the winds which blow down 

 from the higher altitudes after the thunder-shower or 

 the storm. 



it seems to me that in this law of the winds we 

 are permitted to read a startling lesson of the Divine 



