animal life, than any uniform course of weather could have been. To produce this variety, we have two antagonist forces, by the struggle of which such changes occur. Steam and air, two transparent and elastic fluids, expansible by heat, are in many respects and properties very like each other. Yet the same heat, similarly applied to the globe, produces at the surface, currents of these fluids, tending in opposite directions. And these currents mix and balance, conspire and interfere, so that our trees and fields have alternately water and sunshine, our fruits and grain are successively developed and matured. Why should such laws of heat and elastic fluid so obtain, and be so combined? Is it not in order that they may be fit for such offices? There is here an arrangement which no chance could have produced. The details of this apparatus may be beyond our power of tracing; its springs may be out of sight. Such circumstances do not make it the less a curious and beautiful contrivance. They need not prevent our recognising the skill and benevolence which we can discover."

But, besides the difference of heat and cold in different latitudes, there is a similar variation in the higher and lower strata of the atmosphere in the very same localities. The air becomes rapidly colder, as well as lighter, in proportion to its height above the general surface of the earth; and this gives rise to other phenomena. The temperature of the air, as it increases in altitude, diminishes much more rapidly than that of vapor; and the result is, that the evaporated moisture has a constant tendency to ascend into the higher regions, which prevents the air at the surface from being saturated, and keeps up the evaporating process, while the warmer steam, mingling as it ascends with that which is already floating in equilibrium in the upper regions, occasions a precipitation,

and hence the various phenomena of clouds, mist, and rain. These phenomena, again, are modified by the circumstances previously described; and the various currents of warm and cold air, occasioned by many different causes, combined in numerous ways and in divers degrees, give rise to all the varieties of sunshine and cloud, moist

ure and drought, to which we apply the naine of weather, and, by the due balance of which, the fertility of the different regions of the earth is secured.

—a

Such is the general nature of the wonderful mechanism of the atmosphere, so wisely and so bountifully adapted to the organized existences produced by the soil. But there are other particulars, also, which must not be forgotten. Among these, the provision by which the rain is made to fall softly on the earth, and to be diffused in due proportions over its surface, is peculiarly worthy of notice. When we think of the vast quantities of water continually floating over our heads, and at the same time reflect on the irregular and apparently capricious motions of the atmosphere, there seems, at first sight, to be much that is calculated to fill us with alarm. Could we suppose an intelligent being to drop on our globe, and to be made acquainted with just so much of the powers which regulate the antagonist forces of steam and air in our atmosphere, as philosophy has discovered, and no more, while he remained ignorant of the manner in which these powers practically operate, a kind of knowledge which we learn from experience,-what would be his conclusion? Let him be told that there is an amazing accumulation of moisture floating above the surface of the earth, and having a continual tendency, within certain bounds, to increase; but that there are currents of air, sometimes breathing softly, sometimes driving furiously, sometimes expanding this moisture by its heat, sometimes suddenly precipitating it by its cold, sometimes dispersing it far and wide, sometimes strongly compressing it by pouring from opposite quarters. He would immediately say, if all this is not regulated by some other principle than appears-by some overruling Intelligence-there must necessarily be the most destructive inequalities in its distribution over the surface of the earth. It will fall sheer down in some places in one unbroken sheet, so as to overwhelm whole continents with a sudden and fatal deluge, while, in other situations, an entire destitution of moisture will prove equally fatal to organic life. There is here no equilibrium,-no compensating nor equalizing

principle, so far as can be observed. The elements in action, and the forces employed, are so opposite and so powerful, that nothing but confusion and ruin can be the result.

Such is the legitimate conclusion which a rational being might form, without the aid of experience or the knowledge of a superintending Providence. But how different is the reality! The various phenomena of the weather, though irregular, and apparently capricious, when viewed from day to day, are yet preserved within salutary bounds, and wonderfully exhibit, in a series of weeks or months, a certain specific average, in a given locality, which is favourable for producing and nourishing the fruits of the earth. The cold or the heat, the sunshine or the gloom, may be longer protracted at one period than at another, but they are seldom carried to such an extreme as to prove injurious. The rain may sometimes fall in torrents, and occasional inundations may be the consequence; but such occurrences are rare exceptions from a well-conceived rule. The moisture is generally distilled from the clouds in gentle and fertilizing drops, at such seasons, and in such quantities, as are best calculated for cherishing the peculiar vegetation of the regions where it falls. All these circumstances

are obviously adjusted to the qualities of the soil, and of the vegetable principle, so as to give scope to the powers of life inherent in Nature, and to spread abundance and enjoyment over the earth.

Here, then, we have a new proof of designing wisdom and diffusive goodness, the more admirable, as it is entirely in harmony with the character of the rest of the Creator's sublunary works. We do not find a system free from imperfection, and unmingled with evil; but we see tremendous and destructive forces controlled and regulated with consummate skill, so as to harmonize with the other powers and conditions of the physical world, while these, again, equally harmonize with the circumstances of the moral world, thus forming one amazing but mysterious whole. And when we turn from this aspect of Nature, to that of Revelation, and

compare them together, we here, above all, are presented with arguments, analogies, and accommodations, which at once astonish and delight, confound and satisfy, the inquiring mind.

FIRST WEEK-SATURDAY.

FOUNTAINS AND SPRINGS OF RUNNING WATER.

WATER is not only essential to the growth of plants, but to the subsistence of animal life. There is, however, this difference in the wants of these two orders of organized beings, that, whereas plants require only occasional supplies of this fluid, at considerable intervals, and are most luxuriant when, at particular seasons of the year, rainy weather is followed by uninterrupted sunshine for several days or even weeks in succession, few living creatures can subsist without the daily use of water. Were the earth, therefore, only to receive moisture directly from the clouds in the form of rain, and under present conditions, vegetation indeed would subsist and flourish, but the animal world would soon become extinct. The provision by which this essential want is supplied, is that of fountains and springs of running

water.

There is something very peculiar in the circumstances connected with this provision, which cannot fail to interest the contemplative mind. Mountains have already been stated as the general reservoirs from which springs derive their supplies; and, considered in this light, the peculiar form of the earth's surface, in which mountain ranges and elevated ground alternate with long extended valleys and champaign country, cannot but be considered as a beautiful provision of Divine intelligence. But there is something peculiar in the structure of the rocks and other substances of which hills are usually composed, which is also obviously calculated to favor the existence of springs. They consist, generally, of stratified rocks, and, in many

of the lower elevations, of gravel, through which the moisture passes readily, alternating with beds of clay or marl, where it is arrested in its downward progress, and forced by its natural tendency to seek for a vent in the open air; or, where the rocks are primitive, and are, therefore, generally, less permeable by water, there are fissures and hollows through which the fluid sinks, and in which it is deposited, gradually accumulating, till it finds egress in a running stream. In stratified districts this egress is frequently facilitated by what miners and geologists call faults, that is, breaks in the continuity of the rocks.*

The benevolent intention of this arrangement, is too evident to escape observation. Were there not beds of clay in the one case to intercept the water as it sinks, and fissures and openings in the other, in which it is received and accumulated, the earth would, by reason of an irregular supply of this necessary element, be rendered unfit for the subsistence of living creatures, and all the wonderful apparatus of vegetation which Providence has provided for their use, would have been spread over its surface in vain. There would have been neither fountain nor river, and the whole earth would have been reduced to the state of the inhospitable Steppes of Russia, where, on account of the absence of mountains and springs, there exists a vast extent of soil, often naturally fertile, but, except where the waters of distant regions sluggishly meander, or are collected in lakes and pools, unfit for the support of animal life.

There is yet another circumstance, at once curious and important, connected with the geological structure of the earth, as regards a supply of water, which I must not omit to mention, more especially as it illustrates, in a striking manner, a very remarkable feature in the ar

*It is stated by Mr. Hopkins, that all the great springs in the limestone district of Derbyshire, are found in conjunction with great faults. "I do not recollect," says he, "a single exception to this rule, for, I believe, in every instance where I observed a powerful spring, I had independent existence of a great fault."-Philosophical Magazine, August, 1834, p. 131, quoted by Dr. Buckland.

VIII.