houfe in the kingdom, is accommodated from the four quarters of the globe. At the fame time that the fea adorns the abodes of the rich, it employs the hands of the poor. What a multitude of people acquire a livelihood, by preparing commodities for exportation? And what a multitude by manufacturing the wares imported from abroad? Thus, though it is a falfe fuppofition, that the waters themselves are ftrained through fubterranean paffages into the inland countries, yet it is true, that their effects are transfused into every town, every hamlet, and every cottage. 53. Reflections on the Atmosphere. If we turn our thoughts to the atmofphere, we find a most curious and exquifite apparatus of air. This is a fource of innumerable advantages; all which are fetched from the very jaws of ruin. To explain this. The preffure of the air on a perfon of a moderate fize is equal to the weight of twenty thousand pounds. Tremendous confideration! Should an houfe fall upon us with half that force, it would break every bone of our bodies. Yet fo admirably has the Divine wisdom. contrived the air, and fo nicely counterpoifed its dreadful power, that we fuffer no manner of inconvenience; we even enjoy the load. Instead of being as a mountain on our loins, it is as wings to our feet, or finews to our limbs. Is not this common ordination of Providence fomewhat like the miracle of the burning bufh? Well may we fay unto God, O how terrible, yet how beneficent, art thou in thy works! The air, though too weak to fupport our flight, is a thoroughfare for innumerable wings. Here the whole commonwealth of birds expatiate, beyond the reach of their adverfaries. Were they to run upon the earth, they would be in ten thoufand dangers, without strength to refift, or speed to efcape them: whereas by mounting the fkies, they are fecure from peril, they fcorn the horfe and his rider. Some of them perching on the boughs, or foaring aloft, entertain us with their notes. Many of them yield us wholesome and agreeable food, and yet give us no trouble, put us to no expence; but till the time we want them, are wholly out of the way. The air is charged alfo with feveral offices, abfolutely needful for mankind. In our lungs it ventilates the blood, qualifies its warmth, promotes the animal fecretions. We might live even months, without the light of the fun, yea, or the glimmering of a ftar. Whereas, if we are deprived but a few minutes of this, we ficken, we faint, we die. The fame univerfal nurfe has a confiderable share in cherishing the feveral tribes of plants. It tranffules vegetable vigour into the trunk of an oak, and a blooming gaiety into the leaves of a rofe. The air likewife conveys to our noftrils the extremely fubtle effluvia which exhale from odoriferous bodies: particles fo fmall, that they elude the most careful hand. But this receives and tranfmits the invifible vagrants, without losing even a fingle atom; entertaining us with the delightful fenfations that arife from the fragrance of flowers, and admonishing us to withdraw from an unwhole fome fituation, to beware of pernicious food. The air by its undulating motion conducts to our ear all the diverfities of found. While danger is at a confiderable distance, this advertises us of its approach; and with a clamorous but kind importunity, urges us to provide for our fafety. The air wafts to our fenfe all the modulations of mufic, and the more agreeable entertainments of converfation. It diftributes every mufical variation with the utmost exactness, and delivers the meffage of the speaker with the most punctual fidelity whereas, without this internuncio, all would be fullen and unmeaning filence. We fhould neither be charmed by the harmonious, nor improved by the articulate accents. How gentle are the breezes of the air when unconfined! but when collected, they act with fuch immenfe force, as is fufficient to whirl round the hugeft wheels, though clogged with the most incumbering loads. They make the ponderous millftones move as fwiftly as the dancer's heel; and the maffy beams play as nimbly as the mufician's fingers. In the higher regions there is an endless fucceffion of clouds, fed by evaporations from the ocean. The clouds are themfelves a kind of ocean, fufpended in the air. They travel in detached parties, over all the terreftrial globe. They fructify, by proper communications of moisture, the fpacious paftures of the wealthy, and gladden with no lefs liberal showers the cottager's little spot. Nay, Nay, they fatisfy the defolate and waste ground, and caufe the bud, of the tender herb to fpring forth: that the natives of the lonely defert, the herds which know no mafter's ftall, may nevertheless experience the care of an all-fupporting parent. How wonderful! that pendant lakes fhould be diffused, fluid mountains heaped over our heads, and both fuftained in the thinneft part of the atmosphere! How furprifing is the expedient which without veffels of ftone or brafs, keeps fuch loads of water in a buoyant ftate! Job confidered this with holy admiration. Doft thou know the balancings of the clouds? How fuch -ponderous bodies are made to hang in even poife, and hover like the lighteft down? He bindeth up the waters in his thick cloud and the cloud, though nothing is more loose and fluid, becomes by his order tenacious, as casks of iron, is not rent under all the weight. : When the fluices are opened and the waters defcend, one would think they fhould pour down in torrents. Whereas inftead of this, which would be infinitely pernicious, they coalefce into globules, and are difpenfed in gentle fhowers. They fpread themselves as if ftrained through the orifices of the fineft watering pot, and form thofe fmall drops of rain which the clouds diftil upon man abundantly. Thus inftead of drowning the earth, and fweeping away its fruits, they cherish univerfal nature, and (like their great Mafter) diftribute their ftores, to men, animals, vegetables, as they are able to bear them. But befide waters, here are cantoned various parties of winds, mild or fierce, gentle or boisterous, furnished with breezy wings, to fan the glowing firmament, or elfe fitted to act as an univerfal befom, and by fweeping the chambers of the atmofphere to cleanfe the fine aereal fluid. Without this wholefome agency of the winds, the air would ftagnate and become putrid: fo that all the great cities in the world, instead of being feats of elegance, would degenerate into finks of corruption. At fea, the winds fwell the mariner's fails, and speed his courfe along the watery way. By land they perform the office of an immenfe feeds-man, fcattering abroad the feeds of numberlefs plants, which, though the fupport of many animals, are too fmall for the management, or too mean for the attention of man. Here are lightnings ftationed, in act to fpring whenever their piercing flash is neceffary, either to deftroy the fulphureous vapours, or dislodge any other noxious matter, which might prejudice the delicate temperature of the ether, and obfcure its more than chryftalline tranfparency. Above all is fituate a radiant and majeftic orb, which enlightens and chears the inhabitants of the earth: while the air, by a fingular addrefs, amplifies its usefulnefs. Its reflecting power augments that heat, which is the life of nature its refracting power prolongs that fplendor, which is the beauty of the creation. I fay, augments the heat. For the air is a cover which, without oppreffing us with any perceivable weight, confines, reflects, and thereby increases the vivifying heat of the fun. The air increases this, much in the fame manner as our cloaths give additional heat to our body: whereas when it is lefs in quantity, when it is attenuated, the folar heat is very fenfibly diminished. Travellers on the lofty mountains of America, fometimes experience this to their coft. Though the clime at the foot of thofe vaft mountains, is extremely hot and fultry, yet at the topt he cold is fo exceffive, as often to freeze both the horfe and rider to death. We have therefore great reafon to praise God, for placing us in the commodious concavity, the cherishing wings of an atmosphere. The emanations of light, though formed. of inactive matter, yet (aftonishing power of divine wisdom!) are refined almost to the fubtilty of fpirit, and are fcarce inferior even to thought in fpeed. By which means they fpread, with almost instantaneous fwiftnefs, through an whole hemifphere: and though they fill whatever they pervade, yet they ftraiten no place, embarrafs no one, encumber nothing. Every where indeed, and in every element we may difcern the footsteps of the Creator's wifdom. The fpacious canopy over our heads is painted with blue; and the ample carpet under our feet is tinged with green. These colours, by their feft and chearing qualities, yield a perpetual refreshment to the eye. Whereas had the face of nature gliftered with white, or glowed with fearlet, fuch dazzling hues, inftead of chearing, would have fatigued the fight. Befides, as the feveral brighter colours are interfperfed, and form the pictures in this magnificent piece, the green and the blue make an admirable ground, which fhews them all to the utmost advantage. 322 Had the air been much groffer, it would have dimmed the rays of the fun and darkened the day. Our lungs would have been clogged in their vital function, and men drowned or fuffocated therein. Were it much more fubtle, birds would not be able to wing their way through the firmament: neither could the clouds be fuftained, in fo thin an atmosphere. It would elude likewife the organs of refpiration; we fhould gafp for breath with as much difficulty and as little fuccess as fishes do, when out of their native element. $4. Reflections on the Vegetable creation. As to vegetation itself, we are fenfible all our reasonings about the wonderful operations of nature, are fo full of uncertainty, that as the wife man truly observes, Hardly do we guefs aright at the things that are upon earth, and with labour do we find the things that are before us. This is abundantly verified in vegetable nature. For though its productions are fo obvious to us, yet are we ftrangely in the dark concerning them, becaufe the texture of their veffels is fo fine and intricate, that we can trace but few of them, though affifted with the best microscopes. But although we can never hope to come to the bottom and firft principle of things, yet may we every where fee plain fignatures of the hand of a Divine Architect. All vegetables are compofed of water and earth, principles which strongly attract each other and a large portion of air, which strongly attracts when fixed, but ftrongly repels when in an elastic state. By the combination, action, and re-action of thofe few principles, all the operations in vegetables are effected. The particles of air diftend each ductile part, and invigorate their fap, and meeting with the other mutually attracting principles, they are by gentle heat and motion enabled to affimilate into the nourishment of the refpective parts. Thus nutrition is gradually advanced, by the nearer and nearer union of thefe principles, till they arrive at fuch a degree of confiftency, as to form the feveral parts of vegetables. And at length, by the flying off of the watery vehicle, they are compacted into hard fubftances. But when the watery particles again foak into and difunite them, then is the union of the parts of vegetables diffolved, and they are prepared by putrefaction, to appear in fome new form, whereby the nutritive fund of nature can never be exhausted. All these principles are in all the parts of vegetables. But there is more oil in the more exalted parts of them. Thus feeds abound with oil, and confequently with fulphur and air. And indeed as they contain the rudiments of future vegetables, it was neceffary they should be stored with principles, that would both preferve them from putrefaction, and alfo be active in promoting germination and vegetation. And as oil is an excellent prefervative against cold, fo it abounds in the fap of the more northern trees. And it is this by which the ever-greens are enabled to keep their leaves all the winter. Leaves not only bring nourishment from the lower parts within the attraction of the growing fruit, (which like young animals is furnished with proper inftruments to fuck it thence) but also carry off the redundant watery fluid, while they imbibe the dew and rain, which contain much falt and fulphur: for the air is full of acid and fulphureous particles; and the various combinations of thefe, are doubtlefs very ferviceable in promoting the work of vegetation. Indeed fo fine a fluid as the air, is a more proper medium, wherein to prepare and combine the more exalted principles of vegetables, than the grofs watery fluid of the fap. And that there is plenty of thefe particles in the leaves is evident, from the fulphureous exudations often found on their edges. To thefe refined aëreal particles, not only the moft racy, generous taste of fruits, but likewise the most grateful odours of flowers, yea and their beautiful colours are probably owing. In order to fupply tender fhoots with nourishment, nature is careful to furnish, at finall diftances, the young shoots of all forts of trees, with many leaves throughout their whole length: which as fo many jointly acting powers, draw plenty of fap to them.' The like provifion has nature made, in the corn, grafs, and reed-kind: the leafy fpires, which draw nourishment to cach joint, being provided long before the ftem fhoots: the tender ftems would easily break, or dry up, fo as to prevent their growth, had not thefe fcabbards been provided. which both fupport and keep them in a fupple and ductile state. The growth of a young bud to a fhoot, confifts in the gradual dilatation and extenfion of every part, till it is stretched out to its full length. And the capillary tubes ftill retain their hollowness, notwithstanding their being extended, as we fee melted glafs tubes remain hollow, though drawn out to the finest thread. The pith of trees is always full of moisture while the fhoot is growing, by the expanfion of which, the tender, ductile fhoot is diftended in every part. But when each year's fhoot is fully grown, then the pith gradually dries up. Mean time nature carefully provides for the growth of the fucceeding year, by preferving a tender, ductile part in the bud, replete with fucculent pith. Great care is likewife taken to keep the parts between the bark and wood always fupple with flimy moisture, from which ductile matter the woody fibres, veficles, and buds are formed. The great variety of different fubftances in the fame vegetable, proves, that there are peculiar veffels for conveying different forts of nutriment. In many vegetables fome of thofe veffels are plainly feen full of milky, yellow, or red nutriment. Where a fecretion is defigned to compofe an hard fubftance, viz. the kernel or feed of hard-stone fruits, it does not immediately grow from the ftone, which would be the fhorteft way to convey nourishment to it. But the umbilical vefiel fetches a compafs round the concave of the ftone, and then enters the kernel near its cone. By this artifice the veffel being much prolonged, the motion of the fap is thereby retarded, and a vifcid nutriment conveyed to the feed, which turns to an hard fubftance. Let us trace the vegetation of a tree, from the feed to its full maturity. When the feed is fown, in a few days it imbibes fo much moisture, as to fwell with very great force, by which it is enabled both to itrike its roots down, and to force its item out of the ground. As it grows up, the firit, fecond, third, and fourth order of lateral branches fhoot out, each lower order being longer than thofe immediately above them, not only as shooting firft, but becaufe inferted nearer the root, and fo drawing greater plenty of fap. So that a tree is a complicated engine, which has as many different powers as it has branches. And the whole of each yearly growth of the tree, is proportioned to the whole of the nourishment they attract: But leaves also are fo neceffary to promote its growth, that nature provides fmall, thin expansions, which may be called primary leaves, to draw nourishment to the buds and young fhoots, before the leaf is expanded. Thefe bring nutriment to them in a quantity fufficient for their small demand: a greater quantity of which is afterward provided, in proportion to their need, by the greater expansion of the leaves. A ftill more beautiful apparatus we find in the curious expanfions of bloffoms and flowers, which both protect and convey nourishment to the embryo, fruit and feeds. feeds. But as foon as the calix is formed into a fmall fruit, containing a minute, feminal tree, the bloffom falls off, leaving it to imbibe nourishment for itself, which is brought within the reach of its function, by the adjoining leaves. Let us proceed to make some additional reflections upon the vegetable kingdom. All plants produce feeds: but they are entirely unfit for propagation, till they are impregnated. This is performed within the flower, by the duft of the antheræ falling upon the moift ftigmata, where it bursts and fends forth a very fubtle matter, which is abforbed by the ftyle, and conveyed down to the feed. As foon as this operation is over, thofe organs wither and fall. But one flower does not always contain all thefe: often the male organs are on one, the female on another. And that nothing may be wanting, the whole apparatus of the antheræ and ftigmata is in all flowers contrived with wonderful wifdom. In moft, the ftigmata furround the piftil, and are of the fame height. But where the piftil is longer than the ftigmata, the flowers recline, that the duft may fall into the ftigmata, and when impregnated rife again, that the feeds may not fall out. In other flowers the piftil is fhorter, and there the flowers preferve an erect fituation. Nay, when the flowering feafon comes on, they become erect though they were drooping before. Laftly, when the male flowers are placed below the female, the leaves are very small and narrow, that they may not hinder the duft from flying upwards like fmoke, and when in the fame fpecics one plant is male, and the other female, there the duft is carried in abundance by the wind from the male to the fernale. We cannot also without admiration obferve, that most flowers expand themselves when the fun fhines, and clofe when either rain, clouds, or evening is coming on, left the genital duft fhould be coagulated, or otherwife rendered ufelefs. Yet when the impregnation is over, they do not clofe, either upon showers, or the approach of evening. For the fcattering of feed, nature has provided numberlefs ways. Various berries are given for food to animals: but while they eat the pulp, they fow the feed. Either they difperfe them at the fame time: or if they fwallow them, they are returned with intereft. The mistletoe always grows on the other trees; because the thrush that eats the feeds of them, cafts them forth with his dung. The junipers alfo, which fill our woods, are fown in the fame manner. The crofs-bill that lives on fircones, and the hawfinch which feeds on pine-cones, fow many of thofe feeds, especially when they carry the cone to a ftone or ftump, to ftrip off its fcales. Swine likewife and moles, by throwing up the earth, prepare it for the reception of feeds. The great Parent of all decreed that the whole earth fhould be covered with plants. In order to this he adapted the nature of each to the climate where it grows. So that fome can bear intenfe heat, others intenfe cold. Some love a moderate warmth. Many delight in dry, others in moift ground. The Alpine plants love mountains whofe tops are covered with eternal fnow. And they blow and ripen their feeds very early, left the winter fhould overtake and deflroy them. Plants which will grow no where elfe, flourish in Siberia, and near Hudfon's Bay. Grafs can bear almost any temperature of the air: in which the good providence of God appears: this being fo neceffary all over the globe, for the nourilhment of cattle. Thus neither the fcorching fun nor the pinching cold hinders any country from having its vegetables. Nor is there any foil which does not bring forth fome. Pond-weed and water-lilies inhabit the waters. Some plants cover the bottom of rivers and feas: others fill the marshes. Some clothe the plains: others grow in the driest woods, that fcarce ever fee the fun. Nay, ftones and the trunks of trees are not void, but covered with liverwort. The wisdom of the Creator appears no where more than in the manner of the growth of trees. As the roots defcend deeper than thofe of other plants, they do not rob them of nourishment. And as their ftems fhoot up fo high, they are cafily preferved from cattle. The leaves falling in autumn guard many plants against the rigour of winter: and in the fummer afford both them and us a defence against the heat of the fun. They likewife imbibe the water from the earth, part of which tranfpiring through their leaves. is infenfibly difperfed, and helps to moiften the plants that are round about. Lastly, the particular ftructure of trees contributes very much to the propagation of infects. Multitudes of thefe lay their eggs upon their leaves, where they find both food and fafety. Many plants and fhrubs are armed with thorns, to keep the animals from deftroying their fruits. At the fame time thefe cover many other plants, under their branches, fo that while the adjacent grounds are robbed of all plants, fome may be preferved to continue the fpecies. The moffes which adorn the most barren places, preferve the fmaller plants, when they begin to fhoot, from cold and drought... They alfo hinder the fermenting earth from forcing the roots of plants upward in the fpring, as we fee happen annually to trunks of trees. Hence few moffes grow in fouthern climates, not being neceflary there to these ends. Sea-matweed will bear no foil but pure fand. Sand is often blown by violent winds, fo as to deluge as it were meadows and fields. But where this grows, it fixes the fand, and gathers it into hillocks. Thus other lands are formed, the ground increased, and the fea repelled, by this wonderful difpofition of nature. How careful is nature to preferve that ufeful plant grafs! The more its leaves are eaten, the more they increafe. For the Author of nature intended, that vegetables which have flender ftalks and creat leaves fhould be copious and thick fet, and thus afford food for fa vaft a quantity of grazing animals. But what increases our wonder is, that although grafs is the principal food of fuch animals, yet they touch not the flower and feed-bearing ftems, that fo the feeds may ripen and be fown. The caterpillar of the moth, which feeds upon grafs to the great deftruction thereof, feems to be formed in order to keep a due proportion between this and other plants. For grafs when left to grow freely, increases to that degree as to exclude all other plants, which would confequently be extirpated, unless the infect fometimes prepared a place for them. And ; hence |