might produce, that by the contrast we may be more deeply affected with a sense of the paternal care under which we daily live. We have heard of hurricanes and tornadoes sweeping whole districts with the besom of destruction, of the sirocco and simoom carrying instant death on their poisoned wings,—of mountain torrents and swelling seas bursting their ancient boundaries, and bearing wide desolation in their raging waters,-of thunder rending the heavens, and bolts of fire sweeping the blazing earth,—of earthquakes swallowing up whole cities, or volcanoes overwhelming them with floods of liquid lava. But these are only the unfrequent exceptions to a general rule, which has order and happiness for its object, teaching us at once a lesson of humility and gratitude.

storm.

If we turn from this view of what might be the universal state of nature, to real events as they occur under our own eye, and are the subject of daily experience, we shall have abundant cause to acknowledge the presence of an overruling hand. How seldom do we actually observe any extensive desolation produced by a winter "All the changes of the weather," says the judicious Whewell, 66 even the most violent tempests and torrents of rain, may be considered as oscillations about the mean or average condition belonging to each place. All these oscillations are limited and transient; the storm spends its fury, the inundation passes off, the sky clears, the calmer course of nature succeeds. In the forces which produce this derangement, there is a provision for making it short and moderate. The oscillation stops of itself, like the rolling of a ship when no longer impelled by the wind. Now, why should this be so? Why should the oscillations produced by the conflict of so many laws, seemingly quite unconnected with each other, be of this converging and subsiding character? Is it a matter of mechanical necessity, that disturbance must end in the restoration of the medium condition? By no means. There may be an utter subversion of the

equilibrium. The ship may roll too far, and may capsize. The oscillations may go on, becoming larger and larger, till all trace of the original condition is lost; till new forces of inequality and disturbance are brought into play; and disorder and irregularity may succeed, without apparent limit or check in its own nature, like the spread of a conflagration in a city. This is a possibility in any combination of mechanical forces. Why does it not happen in the one before us? By what good fortune are the powers of heat, of water, of steam, of air, the effects of the earth's annual and diurnal motions, and probably other causes, so adjusted, that through all their struggles, the elemental world goes on, upon the whole, so quietly and steadily? Why is the whole fabric of the weather never utterly deranged, its balance lost irrecoverably?"

The complicated nature of the elements, which enter into the constitution of the atmosphere, renders it difficult, perhaps impossible, to give a distinct answer to these interesting questions, by pointing to the precise law which regulates and controls these elements. Mr Whewell refers to the very peculiar adjustments which were requisite, and are actually discoverable, in the comparatively simple problem of the solar system, by which its motions have their cycles, and its perturbations their limits and period; and, from this analogy, he conjectures, with much probability, that could the investigation be followed out, it would land us in a similar result. However this may be, it cannot but be regarded as a mark of the interference of an intelligent and beneficent mind, that the intensity of those tremendous forces which are employed in our atmosphere should be so adjusted, as not only to preserve the permanence of the system, but also to be adapted to the existence and comfort of the animal creation.

In adverting to the general properties of that wonderful fluid which envelopes our globe as with a mantle,

* Whewell's Bridgewater Treatise, p. 107.

the amiable philosopher from whom we have already quoted, has some beautiful observations, with which we shall close this paper.

"If the atmosphere be considered as a vast machine, it is difficult to form any just conception of the profound skill and comprehensiveness of design which it displays. It diffuses and tempers the heat of different climates; for this purpose it performs a circulation occupying the whole range from the pole to the equator; and while it is doing this, it executes many smaller circuits between the sea and the land. At the same time, it is the means of forming clouds and rain; and for this purpose, a perpetual circulation of the watery part of the atmosphere goes on between its lower and upper regions. Besides this complication of circuits, it exercises a more irregular agency in the occasional winds which blow from all quarters, tending perpetually to restore the equilibrium of heat and moisture. But this incessant and multiplied activity discharges only a part of the functions of the air. It is, moreover, the most important and universal material of the growth and sustenance of plants and animals; and is for this purpose every where present, and almost uniform in its quantity. With all its local motion, it has also the office of a medium of communication between intelligent creatures, which office it performs by another set of motions, entirely different, both from the circulation and occasional movements already mentioned; these different kinds of motions not interfering materially with each other: and this last purpose, so remote from the others in its nature, it answers in a manner so perfect and so easy, that we cannot imagine that the object could have been more completely attained, if this had been the sole purpose for which the atmosphere had been created. With all these qualities, this extraordinary part of our terrestrial system is scarcely ever in the way; and when we have occasion to do so, we put forth our hand and push it aside, without being aware of its being near us.

"We may add, that it is, in addition to all that we have hitherto noticed, a constant source of utility and beauty in its effects on light. Without air we should see nothing, except objects on which the sun's rays fell directly or by reflection. It is the atmosphere that converts sunbeams into daylight, and fills the place in which we are with illumination.

"The contemplation of the atmosphere, as a machine which answers all these purposes, is well suited to impress upon us the strongest conviction of the most refined, far-seeing, and far-ruling contrivance. It seems impossible to suppose that these various properties were so bestowed and so combined, any otherwise than by a beneficent and intelligent Being, able and willing to diffuse organization, life, health, and enjoyment, through all parts of the visible world; possessing a fertility of means which no multiplicity of objects could exhaust, and a discrimination of consequences which no complication of conditions could embarrass."

"

FIRST WEEK-SATURDAY.

VARIETY OF CLIMATES.

THE difference of climates arises, as I have already observed, from the spherical figure and inclined position of the earth, which turns a single ring on its surface to the direct rays of the sun, oscillating between two defined limits, and subjects all the rest, more or less, to his oblique, and therefore less powerful, influence. The effect of this is, the production of all the varieties of heat and cold, from the fervid glow of the tropics, to the perpetual ice and snow in the regions of the poles. The adaptation of plants and animals to these diversities, forms a most curious and interesting subject of consideration, * Whewell's Bridgewater Treatise, pp. 126-8.

which will be afterward examined with reference to the respective seasons; but as allusion has, in a preceding paper, been made to the advantages derived from a variety of climates, a few observations at present on these advantages seem not to be out of place.

It has been with truth observed, that the developement of the human powers depends mainly on our wants, either natural or artificial, and these again are increased or restrained in proportion to the means of indulgence, so that the influence is reciprocal. We are naturally indolent, but stand in need of activity, for giving vigour both to our mental and physical powers. We, therefore, require a strong stimulus to exertion; and that stimulus is to be found in our wants, a circumstance which has given rise to the well-known proverb,-Necessity is the mother of invention.

Were all the productions of the earth to be spontaneous and abundant, it may well be questioned if man would ever rise above the level of the most degraded savage. This observation is strikingly sustained and illustrated by history, which informs us that a prostration of all the energies of body and mind has been uniformly found among the native inhabitants of tropical regions, where nature is lavish of her stores, and that it is to the dwellers in countries where the necessaries of life are more scantily produced, that we are to look for a race, hardy, vigorous, and intelligent. To what extent the direct influence of an intense heat co-operates with the more indirect cause we are now considering, in producing this enervated state, it may be difficult to determine; but that it is not the only, or indeed the chief agent, cannot be doubted. While the natives of regions where plenty reigns, indulging their natural appetites without exertion and without restraint, sink deeper and deeper in indolence and effeminacy, those of less bountiful regions, finding an increased population pressing hard on the means of subsistence, are stimulated by their wants to vigorous exertion, and from sheer necessity are rendered