Year: 1862

I


70 the animslcule that floats in the sun


beam; from the lcviathan that hesves


the sea into pillows, to the microscopic


creatures that swarm million In single


fosndrop; all alike depend for their ex-


lstence on this single element, and must


perish if il be withdrawn. But this ele-


meat is supplied entirely by the sea. All


the waters that are in the rivers, the


lakes, the fountains, the vapors, the dew,


the rain, the snow, come alike out Of the


ocean. IL is a common impression that


it is the flow of the rivers that fills the


sea. 1t is a mistake. II is the flow of


the sea that fills the rivers. The streams
do not make the ocean, but the ocean


makes the streams. We say that the
rivers rise in the mountains aud run to


the sea; but the truer statement is, that


the rivers rise In the sea and run to the


mountaing and that their passage thence


is only their homeward journey to the
place from which they started All the


water Ia the rivers has once been in the


clouds; and the clouds are but the corr
densation of the invisible vapor that
floats in the air; and all this vspor has
been lifted into the'sir by the heat of the
sun playing upon ,he ocean. si.H,t1 90


Most persons have no impression of
the amount of water which the ocean is
continually pouring into the sky, and
which the sky itself is sending down in
showers to refresh the earth. If they
were told that there is a river above the
clouds equal in size to the Mississippi or
the Amazon;' that this river is drawn up
out Of the sea, more than mile high;
that it is always full Of water, and that it
is more than twenty-five thousand miles
in length, reaching clear around the
globe, they would call it very extrava-
CANT assertion. And yet not only is this
assertion substantially true, but very
much more thon this is true. If all the
waters in the sky were brought into one
channel, they would make stream more
than fifty times as large as the Missis-
sippi or the Amazon. How many rivers
are there in the sky? Just as many as
there are, on the earth. If they were
not first in the sky, how could they be on
the earth? II it is the sky that keeps
them full, then the sky must always have
enough to keep them full; that is il must
always be ponring down into the sea. .


1t is computed that the water which
falls from the clouds every year, would
cover the whole earth to the depth Of
five feet; that is, if the earth were . level
plain, il would spread over it an ocean Of
water five feet deep reaching around the
whole globe. The sky, therefore, has
not only river of water, but whole
ocean Of it. Aud it has oil come out OF
the sea, The sea, therefore, is the great
inexhaustible fountain which is continu-,
ally pouring up into thersky precisely as
many streams, and az large, as all the
rivers Of the world are pouring into it.
1t is this which keeps the ocean at the
same level from year to year. II 1t were
not sending off into the air precisely as
much as it receives from the rivers, it
would be continually rising on its shores,
and would finally overflow all the lands
of the earth.


And now, If the sea is the real birth.
place of the clouds and the rivers; if out
Of it come all the rains and dews Of
heaven, then instead Of being waste
and an incumbrance, it is q vast fountain
Of fruitfulness, and the nurse and mother
Of al living, Out of its mighty breasts
comes the resources that feed aud sup
port all the population Of the world. All
citios, nations, and continents. of men,
all cattle. aud creeping things, and flying
fowl, all the insect race that people the
air with their million tribes inhumerable,
oil grasses and grains that yield foodfo
man and for beast, all flowers that bright
en- the earth with beauty, all trees of the
field and forest that shade the plains with
their lowly dropping, OF that lift their
banners of glory against the sky as they
maroh over n Thousand hills--all these
wait upon the sea, that they may receive
their meatin due season. That which it
gives them they gather. 1t opens its
hands, and they are filed with food. If
it hides its face, they are troubled, their
breath is taken away they die and return
to their dust. 81 go saliiHm1 y ID


Omnipresent and everywhere alike is
this nced and blessing of the sea lit is
felt as truly in the center of the conti-
nent, where, it may be- the rude inhabit-
ants never heard OF the ocean, as it is on
tire circumference of the wave beaten
shore. Heissurrounded every moment,
by the presence and bounty Of the sea.
1t islthe sea that looks out upon him
from every violet in his garden bed; from
ovcry spire Of grass that drops upon his
passing feet the beaded dew of the morn
ing, from the rustling ranks of the grow
ing corn; from the bending grain that
fills the arms Of the reaper; from the
juicy globes OF gold aud crimson that
burn among the green orchard foliage;
fran his bursting presses and his barns
that are filed with plenty; from the
broad forehead of his cattle, and the rosy
faces Of bis children; from the cool drop
ping well al his door; from the brook
that murmurs by its side, and from the
elm and spreading maple that wave their
protecting branches beneath the sun,
aud swing their breezy shadows over his
habitation. I, is the sea that feeds him.
II is tho sea that clothes him. Itis the
sea that oools him with the summer
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