ing all bodies, by which means many things which would prove nuisances to the world are put out of the way, and reduced to their first principles. The air, as well as being the medium of light and vision, is also the great vehicle of sound, serving to convey to the ear by its undulating motion, all that diversity of noise and modulation of tone, necessary to warn us of impending danger, or attract our attention and regard*." As I walk across the streets of London, with my eye engaged on other objects, a dray, perhaps, with all its load, is driving down directly upon me; or, as I ride along the road, musing and unapprehensive, a chariot and six, is whirling on with a rapid career, at the heels of my horse. The air, like a vigilant friend, in pain for my welfare, immediately takes the alarm; and while the danger is at a considerable distance, dispatches a courier to advertise me of the approaching mischief. The air wafts to our senses all the modulations of music, and the more agreeable entertainments of refined conversation. When Cleora tunes ber song, or the nightingale imitates her enchanting voice; when she heightens every melodious note with her ADORED REDEEMER'S name; and so smooths her charming tones, so breathes her rapturous soul "that GOD'S own ear listens delighted:"-when wisdom takes its seat on Mitio's tongue, and flows in perspicuous periods and instructive truths amidst the chosen circle of his acquaintance: when benevolence, associated with persuasion, dwell on Nicander's lips, and plead the cause of injured inno cence or oppressed virtue-when goodness, leagued with happiness, accompany Eusebius into the pulpit, and reclaim the libertine from the slavery of his vices; disengage the infidel from the fascination of his prejudices; and so affectionately, so pathetically, invite the whole audience to partake the unequalled joys of pure religion-in all these cases the air distributes every musical variation with the utmost exactness, and delivers the speaker's mes• sage with the most punctual fidelity." The air is also made highly subservient to the sense of smelling. When the aerial waves meet with an obstacle which is hard, and of a regular surface, they are reflected, and the reflected sound is † HERVEY. called an echo. smelling. It "undertakes to convey to our nostrils the extremely subtile effluvia which transpire from odoriferous bodies. Those detached particles are so imperceptibly small, that they would elude the most careful hand, or es cape the nicest eye; but this trusty depository receives and escorts the invisible vagrants without losing so much as a single atom, entertaining us by this means with the delightful sensations, which arise from the fragrance of flowers; and admonishing us, by the transmission of offen sive smells, to withdraw from an unwholesome situation, or beware of pernicious food*." Thus does the air administer to the senses of seeing, of hearing, and of smelling. Happy, however, ought we to account ourselves that so oft surcharged with noisome effluvia and noxious vapours, it does not render these sus ceptible to the taste; and although it certainly is a body corporeal, and may at times be felt, yet its resistance in ordinary cases, when it is unagitated and unconfined, is 50 undistinguishable as to occasion no inconvenience. The region of the atmosphere is the great thoroughfare to the feathery creation-it is, if I may so speak, the king's highway for the fowls of heaven, where they perform their lengthened journeys with expedition and safety, and range and expatiate beyond the reach of danger.It is by this element also, that the inhabitant of the waters is enabled to work his little philosophical engine with effect, for without the aid of this subtile fluid, the empty vesicle would have remained a piece of useless lumber. We cannot as yet say "there go the balloons, as if the atmosphere, like the sea, had become the established medium of commerce and of travelling; but the art has already attained to such a degree of perfection, as to render it not improbable, that a voyage in the air will be regarded one day by the generality of mankind, with less awe, than was evinced by those, who first witnessed the adventurous navigator push his bark out of sight of land, beyond the pillars of Herculest. * HERVEY. As Two lofty mountains, one on each side, nigh the Straits of Gi bralter, so called by the ancients. As all the rivers run into the sea, and deposit their concents in its capacicus bosom, so do all the exhalations that arise from terrestrial bodies ascend into the atmosphere. To this capacious alembic take their flight, not only the acqueous vapours that proceed from the sea, the rivers, and moist places of the earth, but the steam or smoke of things melted or burnt; the perspiring fumes of whatever enjoys animal and vegetable life; and the effluvia they emit when deprived of it, and in a state of putrescence. How then, it may be asked, is this heterogeneous mass preserved From corruption and purified from its offensive qualities? for if by respiration, flame, and putrefaction, air is rendered unfit for the support of animal life, there can be no doubt (as Dr PALEY observes) by the constant operation of these corrupting principles, the whole atmosphere, if there were no restoring causes, would come at length to be deprived of its necessary degree of purity. Among these causes the doctor mentions vegetation, and agitation with water, both of which have been proved by experiment to have the effect of atmospherical restoratives, and in as far as the lower regions are concerned, these, on account of their wide extension, must be attended with most beneficial consequences; but as the sea, for its purity, is not dependent on any one cause, so the atmosphere, besides these external restoratives, will be found to contain in its own bosom a correcting principle, which developes itself by its salutary operations, as I shall soon have occasion to notice, in speaking of some of the most remarkable of the PHENOMENA OF THE ATMOSPHERE. THE WIND. "Of what important use to human kind, It drives the clouds and ventilates the skies; Q Q Sweeps A sprig of mint, corked up with a small portion of foul air, placed in the light, renders it again capable of supporting life and flameand the foulest air, shaken in a bottle with water for a sufficient length of time, recovers a great degree of its purity.-Here we see the salutary effects of storms and tempests-the yesty waves, which confound the heaven and the sea, are doing the very thing, but upon 2 larger scale, which was done in the pottle ¦ Sweeps from the earth infections noxious train, And swells to wholesome rage the sluggish main!" SOMETIMES there is a profound calm. Every wind is bushed, not a zephyr breathes over the face of creation, and not a breeze disturbs the glassy expanse of the lake; but the appearance is deceitful and short-lived-all on a sud den the wind is heard rustling among the branches-it gathers strength as it proceeds, and grows up into the ma jesty of a storm. Now the raging tempest spends its fury; houses are swept from their foundations; navies are rent from their anchors; trees are torn up by the roots. This we call wind; and whether its effects appear in the fury of the gale, the violence of the hurricane, the impetuosity of the whirlwind, the dryness of the harmattan, the deleterious ness of the sirocco, or the mortifying influence of the samih, it becomes us not to repine at the dispensations of the almighty, or account those the most deplorable evils which are wisely sent us for the best of purposes We have already noticed the bad effects that would as crue, were it not for the agitation of the ocean; but more dreadful would be the consequences Did neither air nor ocean feel the wind*. It is, however, happily so ordered, that where putrefaction in a state of quiescence would soon prevail, wholesome breezes and salutary gales alternately spring up to sweep destruction from the aerial fluid, and where heat is felt to an alarming degree, the atmosphere extends its airy wings to fan a fainting world!t This principle (as Dr. GREGORY observes) "we find realised on a great scale in what are called the trade winds, which blow constantly from east to west, near the equator. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west, consequently the air will be heated gradually from east to west, and the wind will blow in that direction." The sance * Motion is the Soul of the Universe, it is as necessary in the air as in the ocean, and both are no less indispensible than the notion of the sap in plants, and the circulation of the blood in animals. Any thing that can destroy the equilibrium of the air, produceth such a stream or current as we call wind; so the same thing which renders wind necessary causes it to arise, and blow from that quarter from whence it should come, "the land ame cause, this author remarks, will explain nd sea breezes in the tropical climates ;" and the monsoons, hough the theory of them be more complicated, originate n the same cause. And as it is not only necessary that there be a continual gitation kept up in the ocean by means of the tides and urrents, but in order to prevent its waters from being ontaminated by those numerous loads of filth which are from Il quarters poured into it, it is also requisite that it be urnished with something of a correcting nature, which it as in its saltness: So, in the atmosphere, besides the peretual motion kept up in it by means of the winds, and he beneficial consequences proceeding from vegetation nd the agitation of the waters, there must be also some orrecting quality, especially prevalent in the upper regions, where a number of the most noxious particles, and a coniderable quantity of vitiated effluvia must ascend, perhaps beyond the reach of the other purifying agents. This, t is probable, is the chief cause of the electric fluid, which although it is found to pervade the whole mass of creation, is supposed to be much more copious in the upper than in the lower parts of the atmosphere. In the lower regions of the firmament, indeed, the tre mendous noise of the thunder is heard and the vivid lightnings are seen to flash, but these only happen on extraordinary occasions, or where their presence is absolutely necessary to restore the equilibrium of the lower tracts, in the same manner as the tempest is sometimes sent to agitate in an uncommon degree the surface of the ocean; but far more frequent we may suppose is the busy working of the lightning in the higher regions of the air, although it may be concealed by the density of its lower extremities at times from our view. The glancing of the wild-fire, (as the vulgar style it,) and the playful skipping of the aurora borealis, give us sufficient intimation, that in the silent hours of rest and repose the GREAT CONSERVATOR OF NATURE faints not, neither is weary, but is busily employed, in the unceasing operations of his providence, when our senses are locked in midnight slumbers, and refreshing sleep stretches her balmy wings over a fatigued world. Besides these, which may be called the principal, there Qe 2 are |