CHAPTER IV.

THIRD DAY.

_Section_ I.--THE SEA.

Water and land separated -- Formation of the sea -- Its restrictions -- Extent -- Depth -- Composition -- Saltness -- Motion -- Tides -- Four states of water -- Circulation -- Religious improvement.

On the _third day_, the earth was drained, and the waters, which before covered its surface, were gathered into copious receptacles, and called seas. God said, “Let the waters under the heaven be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear; and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas.” The almighty Creator proceeds to separate, put in order, and control the element nearest to _light_ and _air_ in quality and use, and, although not elastic, yet of great power. Probably the air was used by him as the great agent in gathering the waters into one place. Thus, instead of the confusion, which existed when the earth and the water were mixed in one great mass, there is now order; and by their separation each is rendered useful: the earth affording a habitation and support for man and the various orders of land animals; and the water forming an abode for the numerous tribes of living creatures adapted to subsist in that liquid element.[74]

Previous to this arrangement, the water, being a pure element, was above the earth. Thus the Psalmist, “Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains,” so that they did not appear. “At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away.” At the omnipotent word they started back, and shrunk away, says Bishop Patrick; like an affrighted slave at the thunder of his master’s threatenings, if his commands are not obeyed. They gathered themselves in those places where they now are, which by Moses are called seas; and there God shut them up, confining them that they might not return to cover the earth. God “brake up,” for the reception of the waters, his “decreed place,” that vast concave or hollow in the earth; “and set bars and doors,” banks and shores, the weak sand to control this element, which, however it roar and struggle, it cannot pass.

It is wonderful that the sea, which has a natural disposition, from its being a purer and lighter element, to be above the earth, should not overflow it; but the amazing power of Omnipotence retains it within its prescribed limits. For he has pronounced, “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed.” As if he had said, Though thy tides flow with mighty strength, though the swelling billows of thy pride (so the original) rise high in a storm, and dash against the shore with impetuous force and overwhelming rage, yet here shall they stop: though they roar and foam, as if irritated at the opposing strand, yet dare not to approach beyond those limits to thee assigned; but, obedient to thy Lord and Master, submissively retire. Here we see the power and dominion of the supreme Being in the kingdom of nature, whose sway the sea is subject to! Our preservation from its threatening destruction, by the continual restrictions it is under, is a perpetual expression of Divine goodness and mercy, and should induce all men to live always in the reverential fear of God. “Fear ye not me? saith the Lord: will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass; and though the waters thereof toss themselves, yet they cannot pass over it.”

If we look upon the map of the world, we shall find that the ocean occupies a considerably greater surface of the globe than the land is found to do. Although the ocean, properly speaking, is but one extensive sheet of water, continued over every part of the globe without interruption; and although no part is divided from the rest, yet geographers have distinguished it by different names, as the Atlantic or Western Ocean; the Northern, Southern, Pacific, Indian, and German Oceans. In this vast receptacle, almost all the rivers of the earth ultimately terminate. And yet these vast and inexhaustable supplies do not seem to increase its stores; for it is neither apparently swelled by their tribute, nor diminished by their failure; it continues constantly the same. Indeed, the quantity of water of all the rivers and lakes in the world is nothing compared to that contained in this prodigious reservoir. And some natural philosophers have carried their ideas on this subject so far as to assert, in consequence of certain calculations, that, if the bed of the sea were empty, all the rivers of the world flowing into it with a continuance of their present stores, would take up at least 800 years to fill it again to its present height.[75]

To ascertain the _depth_ of the sea has been found impracticable, both on account of the numerous experiments which it would be found necessary to make, and the want of proper instruments for that purpose. Beyond a certain depth the sea has hitherto been found unfathomable; and though several methods have been contrived to obviate this difficulty, none of them has completely answered the purpose. We know in general that the depth of the sea increases gradually as we leave the shore; but if this continued beyond a certain distance, the depth in the middle of the ocean would be prodigious. Indeed, the numerous islands every where scattered in the sea demonstrate the contrary, by showing us that the bottom of the water is unequal like the land, and that so far from uniformly sinking, it sometimes rises into lofty mountains. If the depth of the sea be in proportion to the elevation of the land, as has been generally supposed, its greatest depth will not exceed five or six miles; for there is no mountain six miles perpendicular above the level of the sea. The sea has never been actually sounded to a greater depth than a mile and 66 feet; every thing beyond that, therefore, rests entirely upon conjecture and analogical reasoning, which, in this case, are in no wise conclusive. Along the coasts, where the depth of the sea is generally well known, it has always been found proportioned to the height of the shore; when the coast is high and mountainous, the sea that washes it is deep; when, on the contrary, the coast is low, the water is shallow. Whether this analogy holds at a distance from the shore, experiments alone can determine.

Water is an uninflammable fluid, says Dr. O. Gregory, and, when pure, is transparent, colorless, and void of taste and smell. Mr. Cavendish made a discovery that it is formed by the union of _hydrogen_ and _oxygen_. It may, therefore, be considered as _oxide of hydrogen_: oxygen and hydrogen appearing to unite, only in that certain proportion of which water is the result. In 1798, (observes Mr. Parkes) Mr. Sequin made a grand experiment for the composition of water. He expended no less than 25,582 cubic inches (or nearly two hogsheads) of inflammable air, and 12,457 of vital air. The first weighed 1,039 grains, and the second 6,210, amounting to 7,249 grains, and the water obtained amounted to 7,245 grains, or about three-fourths of a wine pint. The loss was only four grains. Another experiment was afterwards made by Le Fevre, in which nearly two pounds and a quarter of water was produced.

The sea water contains a quantity of _salt_, but not in the same proportions every where. In the torrid zone, where otherwise, from the excessive heat, it would be in danger of putrefaction, the water is found most salt; as we advance northward its briny quality diminishes, till at the poles it is nearly gone altogether. Under the line, Lucas found that the sea comprised a seventh part of solid contents, consisting chiefly of sea-salt. At Harwich, he found it yielded 1-25 of the same matter. At Carlscroon, in Sweden, it contains 1-30 part, and on the coast of Greenland a great deal less. This gradual diminution of saltness from the equator to the pole, is not, however, without particular exceptions. The Mediterranean sea contain 1-22 of the sea-salt, which is less than the German sea contains. The saltness of some seas, or of particular parts of the same seas, may be increased, as Mr. Boyle intimates, from rocks and other masses of salt, either at the bottom of the sea, or dispersed near their shores.

This phenomenon of the sea perplexed the philosophers before the time of Aristotle, and surpassed even the great genius of that philosopher. Father Kircher, after having consulted three and thirty authors upon the subject, could not help remarking, that the fluctuations of the ocean itself were scarcely more various than the opinions concerning the origin of its saline impregnation. Bernadine Gomesins, (observes Bishop Watson) about 200 years ago, published an ingenious treatise on salt: in this treatise, after reciting and refuting the opinions of Empedocles, Anaxagoras, and Aristotle, on the subject in question, he proposes his own; wherein he maintains, that the sea was originally created in the same state in which we at present find it, and impregnated, from the very first, with the salt which it contains. Indeed, we cannot account for the general saltness of the sea from second causes; hence we must suppose it has had this property from the creation. Naturalists assure us, that, though some few species of fishes thrive in fresh water, and some others live alternately in fresh and salt, yet by far the greatest number cannot exist out of the sea; which is a proof that the sea was at the creation impregnated with salt.

The saltness of the sea has been considered by some as a peculiar blessing from Providence, in order to keep so great an element pure and wholesome: but facts prove that this property is not capable of preserving it from putrefaction. Sir Robert Hawkins, one of our most enlightened navigators, gives an account of a calm, in which the sea continuing for some time without its usual motion, began to assume a very formidable appearance. “Were it not (says he) for the moving of the sea, by the force of winds, tides, and currents, it would corrupt all the world. The experiment of this I saw in the year 1590, lying with a fleet about the islands of Azores, almost six months; the greatest part of the which time we were becalmed. Upon which all the sea became so replenished with various sorts of gelies, and forms of serpents, adders, and snakes, as seemed wonderful; some green, some black, some yellow, some white, some of divers colors, and many of them had life; and some there were a yard and a half and two yards long; which had I not seen, I could hardly have believed. And hereof are witnesses all the companies of the ships which were then present; so that hardly a man could draw a bucket of water clear of some corruption. In which voyage, towards the end thereof, many of every ship fell sick, and began to die apace. But the speedy passage into our country was a remedy to the crazed, and a preservative for those that were not touched.”[76] Mr. Boyle informs us, that he once kept a quantity of sea water, taken from the English channel, for some time barrelled up; and, in a few weeks, it began to acquire a fetid smell. He was also assured by one of his acquaintance, who had been becalmed for about fourteen days in the Indian ocean, that the water, for want of motion, began to stink; and, that had the calm continued much longer, the stench would probably have poisoned him. It is the motion, therefore, and not the saltness of the sea, that preserves it in its present state of salubrity.[77]

The sea has three kinds of motion: the _first_ is that undulation which is occasioned by the wind. This motion is evidently confined to the surface; the bottom, even during the most violent storms, remains perfectly calm. Mr. Boyle has remarked, from the testimony of several divers, that the sea is affected by the winds to the depth only of six feet. It would follow from this, that the height of the waves above the surface does not exceed six feet; and that this holds, in the Mediterranean sea at least, we are informed by the Compte de Marsigli; though he also sometimes observed them, during a very violent tempest, rise two feet higher.

The _second_ kind of motion is that continual tendency which the whole water in the sea has towards the west. It is greater near the equator than about the poles; and, indeed, cannot be said to take place at all in the northern hemisphere beyond the tropic. It begins on the west side of America, where it is moderate; hence that part of the ocean has been called _Pacific_. As the waters advance westward, their motion is accelerated; so that, after having traversed the globe, they strike with great violence on the eastern shore of America. Being stopped by that continent, they turn northward, and run with considerable impetuosity in the Gulf of Mexico; from thence they proceed along the coast of North America, till they come to the south side of the great bank of Newfoundland, when they turn off, and run down to the Western Isles. This current is called the _Gulf stream_. It was first accurately described by Dr. Franklin, who remarked also, that the water in it having been originally heated in the torrid zone, cools so gradually in its passage northward, that even the latitude might be found in any part of the stream by means of a thermometer. This motion of the sea westward has never been explained: it seems to have some connection with the trade-winds, and the diurnal revolution of the earth upon its axis.

The _third_, and most remarkable motion of the sea, is the tide; which is a regular swell of the ocean every 12 hours, accounted for from the principal of gravitation. The sagacious Kepler long ago conjectured, that the earth and moon, and every particle of them, mutually gravitate towards each other, and are the cause of the tides. If, says he, the earth ceased to attract its waters towards itself, all the water in the ocean would rise and flow into the moon: the sphere of the moon’s attraction extends to our earth, and draws up the water. This, at that time, was mere conjecture; for Sir Isaac Newton was the first who clearly pointed out the cause of this phenomenon. On the shores of the ocean, and in bays, creeks, and harbors, which communicate freely with it, the waters rise above their mean height twice a day, and as often sink below it, forming what is called a _flood_ and an _ebb_, a _high_ and _low water_. It has been stated, that in the middle of the sea the tide seldom rises higher than one or two feet; but, on the coast, it frequently reaches to the height of 45 feet, and, in some places, even to more. At Plymouth, it is sometimes 21 feet between the greatest and least depth of the water in the same day, and sometimes only 12 feet.

When the sun and moon act conjointly on the tides, which is at the change and full of the moon, they are stronger and run higher than at other times, and are called _spring tides_; but when the sun and moon are 90 degrees apart, their attractive powers, being in opposition to each other, occasion the tides to be weaker and lower than at other times, and these are called _neap tides_. The word _neap_ is derived from the Saxon; it signifies low, decrescent, and is used only of the tide. These different heights of tide are observed to succeed each other in a regular series, diminishing from the greatest to the least, and then increasing from the least to the greatest, according to the age and situation of the moon.

“The moon turns ocean in his bed, From side to side, in constant ebb and flow, And purifies from stench his watery realms.”

Sir Isaac Newton calculated the attractive powers of the sun and moon on the tides, and found the attraction of the latter to be about three times greater than that of the former.

Water is found to exist in four states: namely, solid, or ice; liquid, or water; vapor, or steam; and in a state of composition in other bodies. The younger Lemery observes, that ice is only the re-establishment of the parts of water in their natural state; that the mere absence of fire is sufficient to account for this re-establishment; and that the fluidity of water is a real fusion, like metals exposed to the fire; differing only in this, that a greater quantity of fire is necessary to the one than the other.

Underneath the poles, water is always solid; there it is similar to the hardest rocks, and may be formed by the chisel of the statuary like a stone. The following circumstance, noticed by Bishop Watson, will show the solidity that water is capable of acquiring when divested of a large portion of caloric. It is related that at the whimsical marriage of Prince Gallitzen, in 1739, the Russians applied ice to the same purposes as stone. A house, consisting of two apartments, was built with large blocks of ice; and the icy cannon, which were fired in honor of the day, performed their office more than once without bursting.

During the severe winter of 1740, observes M. de Bomare, a palace of ice, 52 feet long, 16 wide, and 20 high, was built at Petersburgh, according to the most elegant rules of art. The river Neva afforded the ice, which was from two to three feet thick, blocks of which were cut and embellished with various ornaments. When built up, the different parts were colored by sprinkling them over with water of various tints. Six cannons, made of and mounted with ice, with wheels of the same matter, were placed before the palace; and a hempen bullet was driven by one of these cannons, in the presence of the whole court, through a board two inches thick, at the distance of sixty paces. Cowper remarks,--

“No forest fell, Imperial mistress of the fur-clad Russ, When thou wouldst build--no quarry sent its stores T’ enrich thy walls; but thou didst hew the floods, And make thy marble of the glassy wave. Silently as a dream the fabric rose, Ice upon ice; the well-adjusted parts Were soon conjoin’d; nor other cement ask’d Than water interfused to make them one. Lamps gracefully disposed, and of all hues, Illumin’d ev’ry side. Long wavy wreaths Of flowers, that feared no enemy but warmth, Blush’d on the pannels, which were once a stream, And soon to slide into a stream again.”

In the most northern part of the Russian territory, the cold is sometimes sufficient to freeze mercury, or 72 degrees below the freezing point of water.[78] It is so intense in some seasons, that the poor inhabitants cannot venture out of their miserable huts but at the hazard of their lives.

“There, through the prison of unbounded wilds, Barr’d by the hand of nature from escape, Wide roams the Russian exile. Nought around Strikes his sad eye but deserts lost in snow, And heavy loaded groves, and solid floods, That stretch athwart the solitary vast Their icy horrors to the frozen main.”

In Iceland and Germany the thermometer frequently falls to zero, which is 32 degrees below the freezing point. At Hudson’s Bay it has been known to sink even 50 degrees lower. When stones or metals, which have been exposed to such degrees of cold, are touched by the tongue, or the softer parts of the human body, they absorb the heat from those parts with such rapidity, that the flesh becomes instantly frozen and mortified, and the principle of life in them is extinguished. Some French academicians, who made a journey to the northern end of the Baltic, and wintered under the polar circle, found it necessary to use all possible precautions to secure themselves from the dreadful cold which prevailed. They prevented, as much as possible, the entrance of the external air into their apartments; and if at any time they had occasion to open a window or a door, the humidity of their breath, confined in the air of the house, was condensed and frozen into a shower of snow; their lungs, when they ventured to breathe the cold air, felt as if they were torn asunder; and they often heard the rending of the timber around them by the expansive power of the frost on the fluid in its pores. In this terrible cold the thermometer fell to 33 below zero.[79] The most intense cold ever known in the neighborhood of London was on December 25th, 1796, when the thermometer indicated 2 below zero.

The ice at each pole of the earth forms an immense cupola, the arch of which extends some thousand miles over the continents; the thickness of which, beyond the 60th degree of latitude, is several hundred feet. Navigators have assigned to detached masses, which are met with floating at sea, an elevation of from 1,500 to 1,800 feet.[80] There can be no doubt but that the thickness of these cupolas of ice is much greater nearer the poles; for astronomy sometimes presents in the heavens so vast an image of them, that the rotundity of the earth seems to be considerably affected thereby. Captain Cook could never approach nearer the south pole, where there is no land, than the 70th degree of latitude; that is, no nearer than 1,500 miles; and it was only under the favor of a bay, that he was permitted to advance even so far.[81] All the results of observations made by navigators, concur in proving that the temperature of the sea decreases according to the depth; and that the deepest gulfs are continually covered with ice, even under the equator. From a late memoir by M. Perron, some say, there is reason to believe that these mountains of ice at the poles, which have hitherto impeded the progress of European navigators, have been detached from the depths of the sea to float at the surface.[82]

When water is converted into ice, it is lighter[83] than when in a fluid state, which is a circumstance of great importance. Galileo was the first who observed this. Ice consequently floats upon water, its specific gravity being to that of water as eight to nine. This rarefaction seems to be owing to the air-bubbles produced in water by freezing; and which, being considerably larger in proportion to the water frozen, render the body so much specifically lighter: these air-bubbles, during their production, acquire a great expansive power, so as to burst the containing vessels though ever so strong.

[The specific weight of ice is known to be less than that of water. Our author assigns a reason not entirely satisfactory. We must admit that the freezing of the upper stratum of water, although it may _include_ the air which was in the water frozen, yet, _it does not expel the air from the subjacent volumes of water_. Hence the air in the water below will balance the effects of the air included in the ice.

It is a singular fact, and is regarded as a deviation from the general rule, that water _expands_ in volume in proportion as its temperature is _reduced below_ 40° Fahrenheit. It also expands by raising its temperature above this degree.

The _expansion_ of the volume then, and not the enclosed air bubbles, is the cause of water being specifically lighter when converted into ice. But it remains to account for its expansion by a _reduction_ of temperature.

This is a difficult question. It seems most probable that this expansion is owing to a peculiar arrangement, of the particles of water, in the act of crystallization, i.e. _freezing_. M. Mairan found that the particles of water, in the act of freezing, arranged themselves constantly at an angle of 60°, and by this arrangement _increased the bulk_ of the water thus crystallized.

It is obviously a mistake to attribute the “expansive power” of freezing to the force of the inclosed air-bubbles: because the reduction of temperature would reduce this supposed expansion of the inclosed air. The true cause of the expansion of ice is supposed above, in the arrangements of the particles of water in the process of crystallization.

The _power_ which disposes these particles to arrange, _increases with the reduction of temperature_, until the disposing power becomes sufficiently great to force every impediment to the inclination to arrange. Hence the strongest vessels burst in the process of freezing.

The impediments may restrain the accomplishment of the arrangement of the particles for a time, but the disposing power will overcome them, if the reduction of temperature go on; and when they are overcome _suddenly_, the crystallization will take place _instantly_. Hence the sudden rending of vessels, trees, mountain rocks, &c, upon the sudden congelation of water.

Even when there is no cause to impede crystallization, it is well known that the _preparation_ to crystallize, or freeze, may be observed in the liquid; the particles seeming to be _preparing_ to arrange themselves; and then, at a given stage of the preparation, they take their places _suddenly_, and thus we have ice.

This consummation may be retarded, or hastened by _artificial_ means. Water may be reduced to a lower temperature by being kept _still_, than when _agitated_. And if it be cooled down to the lowest possible temperature, _without congealing_, it may remain fluid at that temperature for a long time. But if the vessel be _suddenly struck_; or the surface of the water _touched with a piece of ice_; or _a large piece of cold metal be brought in contact with the outside of the vessel; the water will instantly crystallize or freeze in beautiful crystals_.

These facts establish the above theory. Because, 1. there is no increased reduction of temperature effected, by striking the vessel, touching the surface of the water with ice, or the outside of the vessel with cold metal. 2. There is every reason to conclude these things _commence the motion_ in the water, which is at rest, balanced between an inclination to be at rest, and an inclination to move in arranging the particles; the motion communicated overcomes this balance in favor of the disposition to crystallize, and hence the water freezes instantly, with an expansion of volume.]

It is owing to the _expansion_ of water in freezing, that rocks and trees are often split during intense frosts. According to the calculations of the Florentine academicians, a spherule of water, only one inch in diameter, expands in freezing with a force superior to the resistance of 13½ tons weight. Major Williams also attempted to prevent this expansion; but during the operation the iron plug which stopped the orifice of the bomb-shell containing the freezing water, and which was more than two pounds weight, was projected several hundred feet with great velocity; and in another experiment the shell burst. This property of water is taken advantage of in splitting slate. At Colly Western, the slate is dug from the quarries in large blocks: these are placed in an opposite direction to what they had in the quarry, and the rain is allowed to fall on them: it penetrates their fissures, and the sharp frost freezes the water, which, expanding with its usual force, splits the slate into thin layers.[84]

M. Mairan, in a dissertation on ice, attributes the increase of its bulk chiefly to a different arrangement of the parts of the water from which it is formed; the icy skin on the water being composed of filaments, which according to him, are found to be constantly and regularly joined at an angle of 60°; and which, by this angular disposition, occupy a greater volume than if they were parallel. He found the augmentation of the volume of water by freezing, in different trials, a 14th, an 18th, a 19th, and when the water was previously purged of air, only a 22d part: that ice, after its formation, continues to expand by cold; for, after water had been frozen to some thickness, the fluid part being let out by a hole in the bottom of the vessel, a continuance of the cold made the ice convex; and a piece of ice, which was at first only a 14th part specifically lighter than water, on being exposed some days to the frost, became a 12th part lighter. To this cause he attributes the bursting of ice on ponds.

Several philosophers have been very desirous to experience how far the expansive force of freezing water might be carried. “An iron gun of an inch thickness,” says M. Haüy, “filled with water and exactly closed, having been exposed by Buot to a strong frost, was found to be burst in two places at the end of twelve hours. The Florentine philosophers were able, by means of the same cause, to burst a sphere of very thick copper; and Musschenbroek, having calculated the effort which would occasion the rupture, found that it would be capable of raising a weight of 27,720 pounds.”

“Colonel E. Williams, of the Royal Artillery, when at Quebec, in the years 1794 and 1795,” says Dr. O. Gregory, “made many experiments. He filled all sizes of iron bomb-shells with water, then plugged the fusee-hole close up, and exposed them to the strong freezing air of the winter in that climate; sometimes driving in the iron plugs as hard as possible with a sledge-hammer: and yet, though they weighed near three pounds, they were always forced out by a sudden expansion of the water in the act of freezing, like a ball impelled by gunpowder, sometimes to the distance of between 400 and 500 feet: and when the plugs were screwed in, or furnished with hooks and barbs, by which to lay hold of the inside of the shell, so that they could not possibly be forced out; in that case the shell was always split in two, though its thickness of metal was about an inch and three quarters. It is further remarkable, that through the circular crack, round about the shells where they burst, there stood out a thin film or sheet of ice, like a fin; and in the cases where the plugs were projected by freezing water, there suddenly issued from the fusee-hole a bolt of ice of the same diameter, and stood over it sometimes to the height of eight inches and a half. Hence we need not be surprised that excessive frost should cause the ice to split rocks, and other solid substances.”[85]

It was necessary for the preservation of the world, that water should in this instance be subjected to a law different from that of other substances which change from fluid to solid. The wisdom and goodness of the great ARTIFICER of the world will manifest itself in this arrangement, if we consider what would have been the consequences had water been subject to the general law, and like other fluids, become specifically heavier by the loss of its caloric. In winter, when the atmosphere became reduced to 32°, the water on the surface of our rivers would have sunk as it froze; another sheet of water would have frozen immediately, and sunk also; the ultimate consequence of which would have been, that the beds of our rivers would have become repositories of immense masses of ice, which no subsequent summer could unbind; and the world would shortly have been converted into a frozen chaos. How admirable the wisdom, how skilful the contrivance, that by subjecting water to a law contrary to what is observed by other fluids, as it freezes it becomes specifically lighter, and, swimming upon the surface, performs an important service by preserving a vast body of caloric in the _subjacent_ fluid from the effects of the surrounding cold, ready to receive its own accustomed quantity on the first change of the atmosphere?[86]

Owing to the distance of this globe from the sun, and to the vast mountains of ice at the poles, the atmosphere over a large portion of the earth is at times reduced to so low a temperature, that, if it were not for a wise provision of nature, all vegetable life must be destroyed. Caloric has always a tendency to equilibrium; therefore, if the temperature of the air be lowered, the earth cools in proportion: but when the atmosphere is reduced to 32°, the water which it held in solution becomes frozen, and precipitates in the form of snow on the earth, covering it as with a carpet, and thereby preventing the escape of that caloric which is necessary for the preservation of those families of vegetables that depend on it for their support and maturity. Be the air ever so cold, the ground, thus covered, is seldom reduced below 32°, but is maintained equably at that temperature for the purpose above mentioned.[87] Homer has described a shower of snow, and its extensive effects, in a fine strain of poetry.

“In Winter’s bleak uncomfortable reign, A snowy inundation hides the plain: Jove stills the winds, and bids the skies to sleep; Then pours the silent tempest thick and deep: And first the mountain tops are covered o’er, Then the green fields, and then the sandy shore; Bent with the weight the nodding woods are seen, And one bright waste hides all the works of men: The circling seas alone, absorbing all, Drink the dissolving fleeces as they fall”--POPE.

Snow is furnished with the power of absorbing and combining with a large portion of oxygen, which gives it its fertilizing property. The snow melting and penetrating into the softened earth communicates to it oxygen, and this oxygen promotes the germination of seeds. The carbon of the earth combining with the oxygen, is converted into carbonic acid, and thereby acquires more solubility; while the water contributes to excite that activity which had been rendered dormant in the roots by the cold. It is this property of carbon which deprives water of the superabundant oxygen that would render it prejudicial to health, and unfit for the purposes of life. Thus what would otherwise be injurious to us is improved by the ground, and gives at the same time power and activity to the mould. How multiplied are those means which infinite wisdom and goodness employ for the preservation of the productions of Nature![88]

Ice at 32° must absorb 140° of caloric before it can become a fluid; or such a quantity as would raise a body of water of equal bulk with itself from 32° to 172°. For instance: “Take any quantity by weight of ice or snow at 32°, and mix it with an equal weight of water heated exactly to 172°. The snow instantly melts, and the temperature of the mixture is still only at _thirty-two_ degrees. Here the water is cooled 140°, while the temperature of the snow is not increased at all; so that 140° of caloric have disappeared. They must have combined with the snow; but they have only melted it, without increasing its temperature. Hence it follows irresistibly that ice, when converted into water, absorbs and combines with 140° of caloric. Water then, after being cooled down to 32°, cannot freeze till it has parted with 140° of caloric; and ice, after being heated to 32°, (which is the exact freezing point), cannot melt till it has absorbed 140° more of caloric. This is the cause of the extreme slowness of these operations. There can be no doubt, then, but water owes its fluidity to its latent caloric, and that its caloric of fluidity is 140°.”[89] And all this arrangement in nature, connected with the operation of these elements, is immediately under the control and direction of the infinitely wise and almighty Creator of the universe. “He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth: his word runneth very swiftly. He giveth snow like wool: he scattereth the hoar-frost like ashes. He casteth forth his ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold? He sendeth out his word, and melteth them: he causeth his wind to blow, and the waters flow.”

Drops of rain, falling through a cold region of the atmosphere, are frozen and converted into hail; and thus the _hail_ is produced by _rain_. When it begins to fall, it is _rain_; when it is falling, it is converted into _hail_; so that it is literally true, that _it rains hail_. The further a hail-stone falls, the larger it generally is; because, in its descent, meeting with innumerable particles of water, they become attached to it, are also frozen, and thus its bulk is continually increasing till it reaches the earth.[90] A storm of hail fell near Liverpool, in Lancashire, in the year 1795, which greatly damaged the vegetation, broke windows, &c, &c. Many of the stones measured five inches in circumference. Dr. Halley mentions a similar storm of hail in Lancashire, Cheshire, &c, April 29, 1697, that for sixty miles in length, and two miles in breadth, did immense damage, by splitting trees, killing fowls and all small animals, knocking down men and horses, &c, &c. Mezeray, in his History of France, says, that in Italy, in 1510, there was for some time a horrible darkness, thicker than that of night; after which the clouds broke into thunder and lightning, and there fell a shower of hail-stones which destroyed all the beasts, birds, and even fish of the country. It was attended with a strong smell of sulphur, and the stones were of a blueish color, some of them weighing one hundred pounds weight. The Almighty says to Job--“Hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war.” While God has such artillery at his command, how soon may he desolate a country, or a world![91]

The aqueous fluid is in continual circulation. The constant _round_ which it travels, says Dr. Paley, and by which, (without suffering either adulteration or waste,) it is continually offering itself to the wants of the habitable globe, is much to be admired. From the sea are exhaled, by the heat of the sun, into the air, those vapors which are there condensed into clouds: these clouds are dissolved into rain and dew, or into snow and hail, which are but rain congealed, by the coldness of the air, and descend in showers, which, penetrating into the crevices of the hills, supply the springs: which springs flow in little streams into the valleys; and there uniting, become rivers, which rivers, in return, feed the ocean. So there is an incessant circulation of the same fluid; and not one drop probably more or less now than there was at the creation. A particle of water takes its departure from the surface of the sea, in order to discharge certain important offices to the earth: and, having executed the service which was assigned to it, returns to the bosom which it left.[92] Thus, as one of the greatest of naturalists says, “All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full: unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.”

Water, when taken up by the atmosphere, is not in an aqueous state, but is converted into vapor by the efficiency of heat, and then combines with more than five times the quantity of caloric than is required to bring ice-cold water to a boiling heat, and occupies a space 800 times greater than it does when in the form of water. A large portion of the matter of heat combining chemically with water, renders it specifically _lighter_; which is the cause of its rising and mixing with the atmosphere. The waters on the face of the earth would be dissipated in vapor by a small degree of heat, if we had no atmosphere. Under the pressure of the atmosphere water boils at 212°, but in vacuo it boils when heated only to 67°. On the contrary, if additional pressure be given to water by a Papin’s digester, it may be heated to 400°, without producing ebullition. However long we boil a fluid, in an open vessel, we cannot make it in the smallest degree hotter than the boiling point.[93] When arrived at this point, the vapor absorbs the heat, and carries it off as fast as it is generated. When water is received into the atmosphere, if the air be warm, it becomes so far changed by its union with the matter of heat as to be perfectly invisible. In this state it occupies a space 1,400 times greater than its ordinary liquid state.

After vapor has remained some time in the atmosphere, it becomes in a measure condensed; and the particles of water of which it is composed unite, and form hollow vesicles, which accumulate together and produce clouds. How this is effected, those who have attentively considered the subject are not agreed. Dr. Thomson, after well investigating the matter, concludes, from all the facts, that “the formation of clouds and rain cannot be accounted for by a single principle with which we are acquainted.” It is, however, says Mr. Parkes, probable that _electricity_ alone is the primary cause. Saussure conjectures that it is the electrical fluid which surrounds these vesicles, and prevents them from dissolving in the air. And the idea of the formation of clouds by the agency of electricity was mentioned by Volta, and also by Dr. Franklin.

[It is allowed by all, that clouds are formed by the aqueous vapors which are held suspended, or in solution, by the atmosphere. It is not a settled question, whether the air holds these vapors in solution, or merely suspended; and thus, keeping the particles asunder, prevents their condensation.

This aqueous vapor is _invisible_ when perfectly in union with the air. When it begins to separate from the air, it becomes visible by condensation, in the form of _clouds_, _mists_, and _fogs_. When it is perfectly separated and sufficiently condensed it becomes _rain_, and when the temperature is sufficiently low to freeze the condensed drops, they become _snow_, or _hail_.

The above process is quite intelligible, but the _agent_ of this condensation is, perhaps, inexplicable. It is impossible to solve all the phenomena of the formation of clouds, by supposing the vapors condensed by a reduction of temperature, produced by the warmer volumes of clouds rising into the regions of colder ones. For we know the natural tendency of the warmer strata of air, from the neighborhood of the earth, is to rise, with its watery particles, to colder regions. Hence there would be a constant condensation, which would seem to require a constant deposition of rain, or mist; or, at least, a constant accumulation of clouds.

Again: On this theory, the nights would be cloudy and rainy: as the vapors raised during the day would be condensed by the superior coldness of the night succeeding. Moreover, it is well known that great rains fall in very warm weather, and when a _rise_ of temperature is observed.

These, and other considerations, have induced many persons to have recourse to _electricity_ to solve this difficult question, and various observations seem to countenance the idea that it may be the remote agent of the formation of clouds, by producing a sudden rarefaction of the air, which would, of course, produce a sudden reduction of temperature; the consequence of which would be a rapid condensation of the watery particles in combination with the air. This condensation would form clouds, and if sufficiently rapid and extensive, a fall of rain would ensue.

This supposition is much strengthened by a fact of common observation, viz: _when clouds are impending over us, but no rain falling, a sudden shower comes down instantly upon a flash of lightning._ In this case it is so obvious that the lightning had an immediate agency, that none can doubt, who ever observed the phenomenon.

The _electrified_ state of _clouds_, _fogs_, and _mists_, is considered strong proof in favor of this theory. Clouds are almost always highly charged with electricity, and sometimes so highly charged as to become _luminous_, and very destructive.

On the 11th of August, 1772, about midnight, a bright cloud was observed covering a mountain in the district of Cheribon, in the island of Java, at the same time several reports were heard like those of a gun. The people who dwelt upon the upper parts of the mountain not being able to fly fast enough, a great part of the cloud, almost three leagues in circumference, detached itself under them, and was seen at a distance rising and falling like the waves of the sea, and emitting globes of fire so luminous, that the night became as clear as day. The effects of it were astonishing; every thing was destroyed for seven leagues round; the houses were demolished; plantations were buried in the earth, and 2,140 people lost their lives. _Ency. Brit. Article_, CLOUDS.

In another case, October 29th, 1757, in the island of Malta, a little after midnight, there was seen to the South west of the city Melita, a great black cloud, which, as it approached, changed its color, till at last it became like a flame of fire mixed with smoke. A dreadful noise was heard on its approach, which alarmed the whole city. It passed over the port, and came first on an English ship, which in an instant was torn to pieces, and nothing left but the hulk; part of the masts, sails, and cordage were carried to a considerable distance along with the cloud. The small craft were sunk instantly. It demolished a part of the city, and passed over to Sicily, but did no injury there as it was previously exhausted. Several hundred were killed. _Ency. Brit. Article_, CLOUD.]

The principle of evaporation is the primary cause of all rain, mist, dew, &c. The ocean loses many millions of gallons of water hourly by evaporation. The Mediterranean alone is said to lose more by it, than it receives from the Nile, the Tiber, the Rhone, the Po, and all the other rivers that fall into it. When Dr. Halley made his celestial observations upon the tops of the mountains at St. Helena, he found that the quantity of vapor which fell there (even when the sky was clear) was so great, that his observations were thereby much impeded: his glasses were so covered with water through the condensation of the vapors, that he was obliged to wipe them every ten minutes. In order to determine, with some degree of accuracy, how much water would be raised in vapor in any space of time, he took a vessel of water salted to the same degree with that of sea-water, in which he placed a thermometer, and by means of a pan of coals brought the water to the same degree of heat as would be produced by the sun in summer: he then affixed the vessel of water with the thermometer in it, to one end of a pair of scales, and exactly counterpoised it with weights on the other. Then, at the end of two hours, he found by the alteration in the weight of the vessel, that a sixtieth part of an inch in the depth of the water was gone off in vapor; and therefore, in twelve hours, one-tenth of an inch would have gone off. From this experiment the Doctor calculates (in as accurate a manner as the subject will admit of) the quantity of water raised by evaporation from the Mediterranean Sea, to be at least five thousand two hundred and eighty millions of tons of water in a day; and from the river Thames twenty millions three hundred thousand tons per day, on the average.

This water is conveyed by the winds to every part of the continents: these it fertilizes in the form of rain, and afterwards supplies the rivers, which flow again into the sea. In our climate, evaporation is found to be about four times as much from the vernal to the autumnal equinox, as from the autumnal to the vernal. Heat facilitates all solutions; and the greater the difference between the temperature of the air and the evaporating surface, the greater will be the evaporation. Bishop Watson found that, even when there had been no rain for a considerable time, and the earth had been dried by the parching heat of summer, an acre of ground dispersed into the air above 1,600 gallons of water in the space of twelve hours of a summer’s day. A little reflection would convince any one of the importance of the principle of evaporation. Innumerable instances of its use might be adduced; suffice to add, that without it neither grass nor corn could be sufficiently void of moisture to lay up for use. Our clothes when washed could not be dried; neither could a variety of the most common operations, which conduce much to our comfort and convenience, be performed without it.

It is evident that water exists in the atmosphere in abundance, even in the driest seasons, and under the clearest sky. By the experiments of Saussure, it appears, that a cubic foot of atmospheric air will hold eleven grains of water in solution. From this property of the air we derive many advantages. It has a tendency to preserve every thing on the face of the earth in a proper degree of moisture. It appears, from the experiments of some aëronauts, that the air is much drier in the higher regions than it is near the surface of the earth.

When two opposite currents of air meet, of different temperatures, the vapors are sometimes condensed thereby, and rain ensues. It may be remarked, that if the temperature of our atmosphere had been 212, or upwards, rain could never have fallen on the earth; for the water taken up by evaporation would have been converted into a _permanently_ elastic fluid. Such is the necessity of rain, that it _alone_ not only affords a proper degree of moisture to the vegetable creation, but is of service in bringing the soils into a fit state to perform their office. Dry earth of itself is ineffective; but when _moistened_ it has the property of decomposing atmospheric air, and of conveying its oxygen to the roots of those plants which vegetate within it. We are indebted to Humboldt for the knowledge of this fact. It is impossible ever to contemplate the various ways in which the different operations of nature are made to correct and balance each other, without being struck with the infinite comprehension of the Divine Mind, which could thus foresee the tendency of every law which it was about to establish. How many cases are there in which the slightest oversight would have produced the destruction of the world!

The effects of vapor have furnished a new moving force to mechanics, says Haüy, which it required no ordinary genius to have created, and to have measured its energy. This science, during a long time, had only employed water as a moving force, by availing itself of its natural course, or by judiciously managing its fall, so as to subject it to the operation of machines which is regulated by an impulsion continually renewed. The experiments made upon the force of water reduced to vapor, gave birth to the idea of applying that vapor so much the more advantageously to the same purpose, because independently of its great energy, it may be transported wherever it is called for by the interests of commerce and industry.

The execution of steam-engines has had, like that of all other machines, its different epochs, to which successively corresponded new degrees of perfection. To diminish, as far as possible, the quantity of vaporisation requisite for the effect in contemplation, and to make a moderate use of the combustible; to combine with this chief economy that of substance and of workmanship, by contracting the dimensions of the pieces without diminishing their utility; to prevent explosions, by the wisest precautions adopted in the management of an agent whose power becomes destructive when it is not limited: these are in general the objects which have fixed the attention of engineers, and have excited among them a laudable kind of rivalship.[94]

In no invention, either for ingenuity or utility, has modern genius been more conspicuous than in the invention of the steam-engine. The amazing power wielded by man, by this means, is just matter of astonishment and wonder. In no part of the kingdom have these stupendous machines been brought to greater perfection, either in size or principle, than in the mining counties of Cornwall and Devon. The largest ever built has lately been erected at Chacewater mine, in the county of Cornwall, by Mr. S. Moyle, of that place, and is for size and efficiency, as well as neatness, without a parallel. This stupendous machine is equal to 1,010 horses; it works day and night in pumping dry a mine of 100 fathoms deep, and of a large extent: and the quantity of water pumped out in one minute, and the column consequently lifted, is greater than any other machine of the kind ever erected. The whole reflects the greatest credit on the abilities of the engineer, and forms an interesting object to all those who are curious in mechanism, or who may visit the mines of Cornwall.[95]

A very ingenious naturalist suggests the idea, that subterraneous fire, and steam generated from it, are the true and real causes of earthquakes. And he thinks the elasticity of steam and its expansive force, are every way capable of producing the stupendous effects attributed to earthquakes, when it is considered that this expansive force of steam is to that of gunpowder as 140 to 5. He also apprehends that subterraneous fire must, at different times, have existed universally in the bowels of the earth, and that in union with water, or by the expansive power of steam, it has produced the immense continents, as well as the mountains of our globe.[96] There are, in the Memoirs of the Paris Academy of Sciences for the year 1707, some observations communicated by Vauban, from which it results that 140 pounds of water converted into vapor, would produce an explosion capable of blowing up a mass of 77,000 pounds, while 140 pounds of powder could only produce a similar effect upon a mass of 30,000.

Water would be the purest of all drinks, says Sturm, were it as absolutely simple body; but on the other hand, its medicinal virtue would be reduced to nothing. If we consider the manner in which water nourishes plants, it is easy to presume that it communicates the nutritious juices which it contains, to men and animals in the same way. Water is not very nutritive by itself, but being very subtile, it dissolves the nutritious parts of aliments, is a vehicle for them, and carries them along into the minutest vessels. It is consequently the most wholesome drink; and is essentially necessary to men and animals; and its salutary effects are felt, where all other liquids are found hurtful to health. “The water of Egypt,” says the Abbé Mascrier, “is so delicious, that one would not wish the heat to be less, or to be delivered from the sensation of thirst. The Turks find it so exquisite, that they excite themselves to drink of it by eating _salt_. It is a common saying among them, that if Mahomed had drank of it, he would have besought God that he might never die, in order to have had this continual gratification. When the Egyptians undertake the pilgrimage of Mecca, or go out of their country on any other account, they speak of nothing but the pleasure they shall have, at their return, in drinking of the waters of the Nile. There is no gratification to be compared to this: it surpasses, in their esteem, that of seeing their relations and families. All those who have tasted of this water, allow that they never met with the like in any other place. When a person drinks of it for the first time, he can scarcely be persuaded that it is not a water prepared by art: for it has something in it inexpressibly agreeable and pleasing to the taste; and it should have the same rank among _waters_, that _champaigne_ has among _wines_. But its most valuable quality is, that it is exceedingly salutary. It never incommodes, let it be drank in what quantity it may: this is so true, that it is no uncommon thing to see some persons drink three buckets full of it in a day, without the least inconvenience! When I pass such encomiums on the water of Egypt, it is right to observe, that I speak only of that of the _Nile_, which indeed is the only water, drinkable, for their _well-water_ is detestable and unwholesome. _Fountains_ are so rare, that they are a kind of prodigy in that country; and as to _rain-water_, that is out of the question, as scarcely any falls in Egypt.”

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Having attended to the situation and properties of water in the world of nature, we shall now show that by this element is represented the blessings of Divine grace in the moral or spiritual world. God is the _fountain of living waters_, ever-living, all-sufficient, and incessantly flowing; like waters, arising and issuing from a spring, which continue during the whole year: not like waters that proceed only from some excess of rain, such as land-floods, or those flowing down from hills, which in the winter season run in torrents, but in the heat of summer are dried up and fail. Such uncertain waters are well expressed by Job--“My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, and as the stream of brooks they pass away; which are blackish by reason of the ice, and wherein the snow is hid: what time they wax warm they vanish: when it is hot they are consumed out of their place. The paths of their way are turned aside; they go to nothing, and perish. The troops of Tema looked, the companies of Sheba waited for them. They are confounded because they had hoped; they came thither, and were ashamed.” He alludes to those merchants who travelled in companies or caravans, with beasts of burden, through the deserts of Arabia; who, having in the winter observed and marked out in certain places on the road great pools of water, or copious streams locked up in the valleys by severe frosts; so that, when travelling the same road in summer, they expected finding water there still to refresh themselves and their thirsty camels; but, to their great grief and consternation, instead of pools or brooks of water, found heaps of dry sand, occasioned by intense heat. But God is a fountain which sends forth streams of blessings in all seasons, and never fails. The _living waters_ which proceed from him as their fountain, are not stagnant, or dead, but running, like those that issue from springs which are never dry, and possess the most refreshing and invigorating properties.

The element of water is used for washing and purifying the body; so the operation of Divine grace on the soul removes its moral defilement. All the purifications by water under the law, were outward expressions of this inward cleansing. Thus those important words by the prophet Ezekiel, “I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you: a new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you.” Accordingly the Psalmist says, “Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” He also prays, “Create in me a clean heart, oh God; and renew a right spirit within me.” As purity is necessary for enjoying communion with God in all his instituted ordinances, he says, “I will wash mine hands in innocency: so will I compass thine altar, oh Lord.” Similar language is used in the New Testament. Our Lord said to Peter, “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part in me.” The apostle Paul, after mentioning several immoral characters to the Christians at Corinth, says, “And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”

Our Lord gave himself for us, not only that he might redeem us from all iniquity, but also that he might purify us unto himself a peculiar people. This cleansing, washing, and purifying the soul from sin, is, in the Holy Scripture, attributed to the virtual efficacy of his blood. “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” “Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.” The primary effect of his blood is the expiation of sin; and, as a consequence thereof, the remission of it. “This is my blood which is shed for the remission of sins.” “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.” Now by the blood of Christ in these places we are to understand his sufferings, which were completed in the shedding of his blood on the cross.

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_Section_ II.--THE EARTH.

Surface of the Earth -- Mountains -- Fertility of Plants -- Dissemination of Seeds -- Preservation of Plants -- Adaptation to different Climates -- Number of vegetables -- Succession of vegetables -- Remarkable Trees -- Sensitive Plants -- Kitchen vegetables -- Garden flowers -- Religious Improvement.

The dry land and the seas constitute what is called the _terraqueous globe_; what proportion the superficies of the sea bears to that of the land, cannot be easily ascertained; but, as one observes, the earth and the water exist in a most judicious proportion to each other. According to the most exact calculations, the surface of the earth is 199,512,595 square miles; and that of the sea is to the land as three to one. There is no certain measurement of the proportion of land and water which the parts within the polar circles contain. The superficies of the sea appearing so large, may lead some persons to suppose, that the proportions between the land and water are not wisely adjusted; and that had there been less sea and more dry land, this would have been more adapted to the accommodation and service of mankind. As such a supposition as this tends to arraign the wisdom of God, so it proceeds from ignorance of natural philosophy. For, as Dr. Keill asserts, “if there were but half the sea that now is, there would be also only half the quantity of vapors; and, consequently, we could have no more than half so many rivers as there now are, to supply not only all the dry land we have at present, but half as much more; for the quantity of vapors which are raised, bears a proportion to the surface whence they are raised, as well as the heat which raised them. The wise Creator so prudently ordered it, that the sea should be large enough to supply vapors sufficient for all the land, which it would not do if it were less than it now is.”[97] The Scriptures speak of God as making all things in number, weight, and measure; as proceeding in his works with the greatest exactness. “He hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with a span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance.” Those who wish to see this further illustrated, would do well to consult Ray’s “Wisdom of God manifested in the works of the Creation,” and his “Physico-theological Discourses.”

The stately mountains, that lift their lofty heads above the clouds, serve for very beneficial purposes. Does the bold atheist call them blemishes, and irregularities in the formation of the earth? Surely he never considered how necessary they are, for arresting the clouds in their flight, and conveying their waters through imperceptible channels, till they meet in some common receptacle, whence they burst out in springs to fertilize the lower grounds, and afford refreshing streams for man and beast. “This,” says Mr. Halley, “seems to be the design of the hills, that their ridges, being placed through the midst of the continents, might serve as it were for alembics, to distil fresh water for the use of man and beast; and that their heights might give a descent to those streams to run gently, like so many veins of the microcosm, to be more beneficial to the creation.” They are, says Mr. Ray, “for the generation and maintenance of rivers and fountains, which--on the hypothesis that all proceed from rain water--could not subsist without them, or but rarely. So we should have only torrents, which would fail in summer, or in any dry season, and nothing to trust to, but stagnating water, reserved in pools and cisterns. The great inconvenience resulting from this I need not take pains to show. I say that fountains and rivers would be but rare, were there no mountains. For the whole dry land being but one continued mountain, and ascending all along from the sea to the mid-land, as is undeniably proved by the descent of rivers even in plain countries; the water sinking into the earth, may run under ground, and, according as the vein leads it, break out in the side of this mountain, though the place, as to outward appearance, be a plain. There are huge ridges and extended chains of mountains directed for the most part to run east and west; by which means they give admittance and passage to the vapors, brought by the winds from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans; but stop and inhibit their excursions to the north and south, either condensing them on their sides into water, by a kind of external distillation; or by straitening and constipating them, compelling them to gather into drops, or descend down in the rain.”

After the waters had subsided, the land appeared, dry and fit for vegetation. “And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind.” Here we rise to organized and vegetative bodies. At the Divine command, herbs, plants, trees, and all the almost endless varieties of the vegetable world, bearing their several seeds and fruits, according to their different kinds, immediately began to appear. Thus before God formed any living creature to dwell upon the earth, he provided abundantly for its sustenance. “Now as God delights to manifest himself in the little as well as the great,” says a celebrated commentator, “he has shown his consummate wisdom in every part of the vegetable creation. Who can account for, or comprehend, the structure of a single tree or plant? The roots, the stem, the woody fibres, the bark, the rind, the air-vessels, the sap-vessels, the leaves, the flowers, and the fruits, are so many mysteries. All the skill, wisdom, and power of men and angels, could not produce a single grain of wheat!”

Dr. Hales, in his Statistical Essays, has observed, that the substances of vegetables appear, by a chemical analysis, to be composed of sulphur, volatile salt, water, and earth, which are all endued with mutually attracting powers; and also of a large portion of air, which has a wonderful power of strongly attracting in a fixed state, or of repelling in an elastic state, with a power which is superior to great compressive forces.[98] By the infinite combinations, action, and reaction of these principles, all the operations in animal and vegetable bodies are effected. These active aërial principles are very serviceable in carrying on the work of vegetation to its perfection and maturity; not only in helping, by their elasticity, to distend each ductile part, but, also, by enlivening and invigorating their sap, where, mixing with the other mutually attracting principles, they are, by gentle heat and motion, set at liberty to assimilate into the nourishment of the respective parts. The sum of the attracting powers of these mutually acting and re-acting principles, is, while in this nutritive state, superior to their repelling power; by which the work of nutrition is gradually advanced by the nearer and nearer union of these principles from a less to a greater degree of consistency, till they are advanced to that viscid, ductile state, whence the several parts of vegetables are formed; and are, at length, firmly compacted into hard substances, by the flying off of the watery diluting vehicle: but when they are again disunited by the watery particles, their repelling power is thereby become superior to their attracting power, and the union of the parts of vegetables is so thoroughly dissolved, that putrefaction commences.

God has endued the vegetable creation with the astonishing power of multiplying itself by seeds, slips, roots. &c. ad infinitum: it contains in itself all the rudiments of the future plants through their endless generations. The celebrated Linnæus, in an “oration concerning the augmentation of the habitable earth,” which proceeds on the supposition of the existence of a sexual system in the vegetable world, shows how from one plant of each species the immense number of individuals now existing might arise. He gives some instances of the surprising fertility of certain plants; as, of the elecampane, one plant of which produced 3,000 seeds; of spelt, 2,000; of the sun-flower, 4,000; of the poppy, 3,200; of tobacco, 40,320: and one grain of Turkey-corn produces 2,000 others! But supposing any annual plant producing yearly only two seeds, even of these, after 20 years, there would be 1,048,576 individuals. For they would increase yearly in a double proportion, _viz._ 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, &c. The seed of the _elm_, as a learned author observes, affords a remarkable instance of the prolific power with which the vegetable creation is endued, to multiply its different species. “This tree produces one thousand five hundred and eighty-four millions of seeds; and each of these seeds has the power of producing the same number. How astonishing is this produce! At first one seed is deposited in the earth; from this one a tree springs, which in the course of its vegetative life produces one thousand five hundred and eighty-four millions of seeds. This is the first generation. The second generation will amount to two trillions, five hundred and ten thousand and fifty-six billions. The third generation will amount to fourteen thousand six hundred and fifty-eight quadrillions, seven hundred and twenty-seven thousand and forty trillions! And the fourth generation from these would amount to fifty one sextillions, four hundred and eighty-one thousand three hundred and eighty-one quintillions, one hundred and twenty-three thousand one hundred and thirty-six quadrillions! Sums too immense for the human mind to conceive; and when we allow the most confined space in which a tree can grow, it appears that the seeds of the third generation from one elm would be many myriads of times more than sufficient to stock the whole superficies of all the planets in the solar system!”

While many plants and trees may be propagated by branches, buds, suckers, and leaves fixed in the ground; so concerning the dissemination of seeds after they come to maturity, the Author of nature has wisely provided in various ways; this being absolutely necessary, since without it no crop could follow. The stalks and stems favor this purpose; for these raise the fruit above the ground, so that the winds, shaking them to and fro, widely disperse the ripe seeds. The pericarpium, a pellicle or thin membrane encompassing the fruit or grain of a plant, is generally shut at the top, that the seeds may not fall before they are shaken out by stormy winds. Wings are given to many seeds, by the help of which they fly far from the mother plant, and frequently spread over a large tract of country. These wings consist either of down, as in most of the composite-flowered plants; or of a membrane, as in birch, alder, ash, &c. Several kinds of fruits are endued with a remarkable elasticity, by the force of which the ripe pericarpies throw the seeds to a great distance; as wood-sorrel, spurge, phyllanthus, and dittany. Other seeds or pericarpies are rough, or provided with hooks, as hounds-tongue, agrimony, &c; so that they are apt to stick to animals which pass by them, and by this means are carried to their holes, where they are both sown and manured. Berries, as well as other pericarpies, are by nature allotted for aliment to animals; but, with this condition, that while they eat the pulp, they shall sow the seeds: for when they feed on it, they either disperse them at the same time; or, if they swallow them, they are returned unhurt. The mistletoe always grows on other trees, because the thrush eating its seeds, casts them forth with its dung. The cross-bill living on fircones, and the haw-finch feeding on pinecones, sow many of their seeds.

The structure of plants contributes essentially both to their own preservation, and that of others. But the wisdom of the Creator appears very remarkable in the manner of the growth of trees. For as their roots descend deeper than those of other plants, provision is thereby made that they shall not rob them too much of nourishment;[99] and what is still more, a stem, not above a span in diameter, often shoots its branches very high; these bear perhaps many thousand buds, each of which is a plant, with its leaves, flowers, and stipulæ. Now if all these grew on the plain, they would take up a thousand times as much space as trees do; and, in this case, there would scarcely be room in all the earth for so many plants as at present trees alone afford. Besides, plants that shoot up in this way are more easily preserved from cattle by a natural defence: their leaves also, falling in autumn, cover the plants growing about them against the rigor of the winter; and, in the summer, they afford a pleasing shade, not only to animals, but to plants, against the intense heat of the sun. We may add, that trees, like all other vegetables, imbibe water from the earth: which does not circulate again to the root, but being dispersed like small rain, by the transpiration of the leaves, moistens the plants that grow around. Many plants and shrubs are armed with thorns, as the buckthorn, sloe, carduus, cotton-thistle, &c: these serve to keep off animals, which otherwise would destroy their fruit. At the same time, they cover many other plants, especially of the annual kind, under their branches. Nay it has frequently been observed on commons where furze grows, that wherever a bush was left untouched for some years by the inhabitants a tree has sprung up, being secured by the prickles of that shrub from the bite of cattle. So that while adjacent grounds are robbed of plants by voracious animals, some may be preserved to ripen flowers and fruit, and stock the surrounding parts with seeds which otherwise would be quite extirpated. All herbs cover the ground with their leaves, and by their shade hinder it from being totally deprived of that moisture which is necessary to their nourishment. Mosses, which adorn the most barren places, do, at the same time, preserve lesser plants when they begin to shoot, from cold and drought; as is evident in gardens, where plants are preserved in the same way. They also hinder the fermenting earth from forcing the roots of plants upwards in the spring; like what happens annually to trunks of trees, and other things put into the ground. Hence very few mosses grow in warm climates, the same necessity not existing in those places.

The great Author of all things intended that the whole earth should be covered with plants, and that no place should be void or barren. But since all countries have not the same changes of seasons, and every soil is not equally adapted to every plant; therefore, that no place should be without some, he gave to each of them such a nature as might be chiefly accommodated to their own climate: so that some of them can bear intense cold, others an equal degree of heat; some delight in dry ground, others in moist, &c. Hence plants grow where the seasons of the year and the soil are friendly to their constitution. Grasses, the most common of all plants, can bear almost any temperature of air: in this the good providence of the Creator particularly appears; for all over the globe they are necessary for the nourishment of cattle. The same is observed in relation to our most common grains. Thus neither the scorching sun, nor the pinching cold, hinders any country from having vegetables. Nor is there any soil which does not bring forth many kinds of plants. Deserts and sandy places are adorned with trees and plants.

If we connect the vast fecundity of vegetables with their number, how bountiful will the great Author of nature appear! Solomon had a comprehensive knowledge of the different species of plants, for he “spake of trees, from the cedar-tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall;” but his writings on this subject, not being quoted by any ancient author, nor the least fragment remaining, are entirely lost. Theophrastus, a Greek philosopher, who succeeded Aristotle in his school at Athens, where his name became so celebrated that he was attended by two thousand pupils, wrote a work entitled “The History of Plants,” in which above 500 different plants are described. Dioscorides, a Grecian by birth, but under the Roman empire, a physician and botanist in the time of Nero, being near 300 years posterior to Theophrastus, describes about 600 plants. Pliny the elder,[100] in his voluminous work entitled “The History of the World,” gives descriptions of above 1,000 different species of plants. Hieronymus Bock, or Bouc, a German, generally known by the name of _Tragus_, in 1532, published a History of Plants, in which he describes 800 species.

From later botanical researches, we learn, that the bountiful Creator has enriched the earth with about 20,000 different species of vegetables. The following statement of the progress of botanical knowledge has recently been given to the public. Messrs. Humboldt and Boupland, the celebrated travellers, have collected in their five years’ travels through South America, 3,800 species of plants, of which upwards of 3,000 were new, and absolutely unknown before to the botanists of Europe. We are at present acquainted altogether with 44,000 species of plants; while the whole number mentioned by the Greeks, Romans, and Arabians, does not exceed 1,400. It is worth remarking, that the vegetable productions of the new world seem to have been in an inverse ratio, both in point of number and luxuriance, to those of the animal kingdom. In North America, for instance, the number of lofty trees is far greater than in Europe. In the former country, there are found 137 species of trees, whose trunks exceed the height of 30 feet; while in Europe there are scarcely 45 species. But it is singular there are no firs to be found on any part of the mountains of South America, between the tropics, though they are very abundant in North America. The reason why Magnolias, and other equinoxial plants, appear so far north in America, is, that as far as lat. 48 deg. the summers are 9 degrees (of Fahrenheit) hotter than in the corresponding European latitudes. The winters, however, are more than proportionably colder. At Philadelphia the summer is as hot as at Rome; while the winter corresponds with that of Vienna. At Quebec, the summer is warmer than at Paris; the winter colder than at St. Petersburgh. Beyond Lake Superior, and at Hudson’s Bay, it is said that the earth is perpetually frozen at the depth of three feet from the surface, which prevents the inhabitants from digging wells. The same thing happens in Siberia, on the banks of the Lena; while in South America there are cities at a greater height than the highest summit of the Pyrenees, and houses more elevated than the Peak of Teneriffe, the region, in Europe, of perpetual congelation. To this we may add, that Linnæus, the celebrated botanist, divided all plants into classes, the classes into orders, the orders into genera, and the genera into species: and the species, we are told, amount perhaps to 40,000, or 50,000, or more!

The fertility of the earth has been continued from the creation, through every successive period, to the present time. Plants spring up, grow, flourish, ripen their fruit, wither, and at last, having finished their course, die, and return to the dust again, from whence they first took their rise. Thus black mould, which covers the earth, is generally owing to dead vegetables. For all roots descend into the sand by their branches, and after a plant has lost its stem, the root remains; but this too rots at last, and changes into mould. Thus this kind of earth is mixed with sand, by the arrangement of nature, nearly in the same way as dung thrown on fields is wrought into the earth by the industry of the husbandman. But the earth offers again to plants from its bosom what it has thus received. For when seeds are committed to the earth, they draw to themselves, accommodate to their nature, and turn into plants, the more subtile parts of this mould by the co-operation of the sun, air, and rain; so that the tallest tree is, properly speaking, nothing but mould wonderfully compounded with air and water, and modified by a virtue communicated to a small seed by the Creator. From these plants, when they die, just the same kind of mould is formed as gave birth to them originally; whence fertility remains continually uninterrupted. Whereas the earth could not make good its annual consumption, unless it were constantly recruited by new supplies.

That the Author of nature had so constituted the world that none of the elements should be subject to destruction, might have been supposed by the ancients; but, till the present advanced state of the science of chemistry, no proof of this interesting fact could have been adduced. Of the indestructibility of matter it may be remarked, that provision has been made even for the restoration of the fallen leaves of vegetables, which rot on the ground, and, to a careless observer, would appear to be lost for ever. Berthollet has shown by experiment, that, whenever the soil becomes charged with such matter, the oxygen of the atmosphere combines with it, and converts it into carbonic acid gas. The consequence of this is, that this same carbon in process of time is absorbed by a new race of vegetables, which it clothes with a new foliage, and which is itself destined to undergo similar putrefaction and renovation to the end of time.

The selection of a few remarkable trees and plants will serve to impress the reader with a sense of the wisdom and power of God, as displayed in the vegetable kingdom. As rivers and brooks are very seldom found in deserts and sandy places, many of the trees growing there distil water; and, by that means, afford great comfort both to man and beast. Thus the _Tillandsia_, which is a parasitical plant, growing on the tops of trees in the deserts of America, has its leaves turned at the base into the shape of a pitcher, with the extremity expanded; in these the rain is collected, and preserved for the use of men, beasts, and birds. The water-tree in Ceylon produces cylindrical bladders, covered with a lid; into these is secreted a most pure and refreshing water. There is a kind of cuckow-pint in New France, of which, if a person break a branch, it will afford him a pint of excellent water. How wise, how beneficial is the adaptation of plants to the inhabitants of those countries where they grow!

On the top of a rock, in one of the Canary Islands, says Glass, in his History, grows the _Fountain Tree_, called, in the language of the ancient inhabitants, _Garse_, (sacred or holy tree,) which for many years has been preserved sound, entire, and fresh. Its leaves constantly distil such a quantity of water as is sufficient to furnish drink to every living creature in Hierro; nature having provided this remedy for the drought of the island. It is situated about a league and a half from the sea. Nobody knows of what species it is, only that it is called _Til_. It is distinct from other trees, and stands by itself. The circumference of its trunk is about twelve spans, the diameter four, and in height from the ground to the top of the highest branch forty spans: the circumference of all the branches together, is one hundred and twenty feet. The branches are thick and extended: the lowest commence an ell from the ground. Its fruit resembles the acorn, and tastes something like the kernel of a pine-apple, but is softer and more aromatic. The leaves of this tree resemble those of the laurel, but are larger, wider, and more curved; they come forth in perpetual succession, so that the tree always remains green. On the north side of the trunk, are two large tanks, or cisterns, of rough stone, or rather one cistern divided, each half being twenty feet square, and sixteen spans in depth. One of these contains water for the drinking of the inhabitants; and the other that which they use for their cattle, washing, and such like purposes. Every morning, near this part of the island, a cloud or mist arises from the sea, which the south and easterly winds force against the fore-mentioned steep cliff, so that the cloud, having no vent but by the gutter, gradually ascends it, and from thence advances slowly to the extremity of the valley, where it is stopped and checked by the front of the rock, which terminates the valley, and then rests upon the thick leaves and wide-spreading branches of the tree, from whence it distils in drops, during the remainder of the day, until it is at length exhausted, in the same manner that we see water drip from the leaves of trees after a heavy shower of rain. This tree yields most water in those years when the Levant or easterly winds have prevailed for a continuance, for by these winds only the clouds or mists are drawn hither from the sea. A person lives on the spot near where this tree grows, who is appointed by the council to take care of it, and its water; and is allowed a house to live in, with a certain salary. He every day distributes to each family of the district, seven pots or vessels full of water, besides what he gives to the principal people in the island.

In Cockburn’s Voyages we find the following account of the _Dropping Tree_, near the mountains of Vera Paz, in America. “On the morning of the fourth day we came out on a large plain where were numbers of fine deer, and in the middle stood a tree of an unusual size, spreading its branches over a vast compass of ground. Curiosity led us up to it; we had perceived, at some distance, the ground about it to be wet, at which we began to be somewhat surprised, as well knowing there had no rain fallen for near six months past, according to the certain course of the season in that latitude; that it was impossible to be occasioned by the fall of dew on the tree, we were convinced, by the sun having power to exhale all moisture of that nature a few minutes after his rising. At last, to our great amazement, as well as joy, we saw water dropping, or, as it were, distilling fast from the end of every leaf of this wonderful (nor had it been amiss, if I had said miraculous) tree; at least it was so with respect to us, who had been laboring four days through extreme heat without receiving the least moisture, and were now almost expiring for the want of it. We could not help looking on this as liquor sent from heaven to comfort us under our great extremity. We catched what we could of it in our hands, and drank very plentifully of it, liking it so well, that we could hardly prevail with ourselves to give it over. A matter of this nature could not but excite us to make the strictest observations concerning it; and accordingly we staid under the tree near three hours: we found that we could not clasp its body by five times. We observed the soil where it grew to be very stony; and upon the nicest inquiry we could afterwards make, both of the natives of the country, and the Spanish inhabitants, we could not learn that there was any such tree known throughout New Spain, nor perhaps all America over.”

The _Tallow Tree_, mentioned by Du Halde in his History of China, grows in great plenty in that country, producing a substance much like our tallow, and serving for the same purposes. It is about the height of a cherry tree; its leaves are in form of a heart, of a deep shining red color, and its bark very smooth. Its fruit is enclosed in a kind of pod or cover, like a chestnut, and consists of three round white grains, of the size and form of a small nut, each having its peculiar capsule, and within that a little stone. This stone is encompassed with a white pulp, which has all the properties of true tallow, as to consistence, color, and even smell; and accordingly the Chinese make their candles of it, which doubtless would be as good as those in Europe, if they knew how to purify this vegetable as we do the animal tallow, and make their wicks as fine. All the preparation they give it, is to melt it down, and mix a little oil with it, to make it softer and more pliant. It is true, their candles made of it yield a thicker smoke, and give a dimmer light than those of ours; but these defects are owing in a great measure to the wicks, which are not of cotton, but only a little rod or switch of dry light wood, covered with the pith of a rush, wound round it, which, being very porous, serves to filtrate the minute parts of the tallow, attracted by the burning stick, and which by this means is kept burning.

The _Tea Tree_ is a native of China, of very slow growth; it has a black, woody, irregular, branched root, and rises to a fathom high, or rather more. Its leaves are very thick set, without any regularity, and are, in substance, like those of the morella cherry tree; but, when young, they resemble, except in color, the spindle tree, with red berries, called _euonymus_. The larger leaves are about two inches long, and one broad. The method of gathering them is one by one, lest they should be torn. The first gathering begins at the middle of the first moon, immediately before the vernal equinox; these leaves are scarcely full opened, being only of two or three days growth; but they are accounted the best, fetch the best price, and are called the flower of the tea; but, by the Chinese, _veui boui_, or bohea tea. The second gathering begins about a month after, and the last gathering is in June; the leaves of the gatherings are sorted into three several classes, according to their size and goodness, and sold accordingly. After the leaves are gathered, they are the same day carried to the work-house, and roasted over a slow fire in an iron pan; and, that they may be thoroughly and equally dried, the roaster keeps them continually stirring with his hands, then takes them out, with a shovel like a fan, and commits them to the rollers, who roll them with the palms of their hands in small parcels, till they are equally cooled, and the sharp yellow and greenish juice is quite discharged. They are then poured upon a mat, and sorted a second time into different classes according to their goodness, and those that are less curled or burnt are taken out.--It is said that the Dutch were the first importers of tea into Europe, about the year 1606, for which they exchanged dried sage with the Chinese: and though the English did certainly about the same time gain a knowledge of this plant, we do not find that the government took any cognizance of it till the Restoration, when in 1660, a duty of eight-pence per gallon was laid on the liquor made, and sold in all coffee-houses.

The _Coffee Tree_ is a native of the Indies, grows surprisingly quick, and its body is naturally of an upright form; its leaves are something like those of the common bay, but curl at the end and hang downwards. The blossoms first appear in July, when they show themselves in bunches at the joints, near the ends of the branches; they are much like the flowers of the jessamine, but have the addition of some yellow _apices_, which are loose on the top of the blossom, and a _style_ which shoots out near half an inch above it. The fruit appears about October, which hangs on the tree till the next July before it is ripe: it is then gathered and prepared for the market, or for propagating other plants. Coffee is, perhaps, one of the greatest blessings, among those that are not really necessaries of life, that Providence has granted to mankind; and, considering its beneficial qualities as well as its agreeable properties, it should be ranked among the most elegant plants, in foliage, blossom, and fruit. It is a wholesome, pleasant, and cheap beverage, and of great use in many disorders. The origin of the use of coffee is stated to be as follows. A prior of a monastery in the part of Arabia where this berry grows, having remarked that the goats which eat of it became extremely brisk and alert, resolved to try the experiment on his monks, of whom he so continually complained for their lethargic propensities. The experiment turned out successful; and, it is said, it was owing to this circumstance that the use of this Arabian berry came to be so universal.

The _Banian Tree_ is a native of several parts of the East Indies. It has a woody stem, branching to a great height and vast extent, with heart-shaped entire leaves, ending in acute points. Of this tree the following lines of Milton contain a description equally beautiful and just.

“There soon they chose The fig tree; not that tree for fruit renown’d, But such as at this day to Indians known In Malabar or Decan, spreads her arms, Branching so broad and long, that in the ground The bended twigs take root and daughters grow About the mother tree, a pillar’d shade, High over arch’d and echoing walks between; There oft the Indian herdsman, shunning heat, Shelters in cool, and tends his pasturing herds At loop-holes cut through thickest shade.”

The banian tree, or Indian fig, is perhaps the most beautiful of nature’s productions in that genial climate, where her luxuriance is displayed with the greatest profusion and variety. Some of these trees, as they are continually increasing, and, contrary to most other things in animal and vegetable life, seem to be exempted from decay, grow to an amazing size. Every branch projecting from the main body throws out its own roots, at first in small tender fibres, several yards from the ground; these continually grow thicker till they reach the surface; and there striking in, they increase to large trunks, and become parent trees, shooting out new branches from the top; these at length suspend their roots, which, swelling into trunks, produce other branches: thus continuing in a state of progression as long as the earth, the first parent of them all, contributes her sustenance. The Hindoos are peculiarly fond of this tree; they view it as an emblem of the Deity, from its long duration, outstretching arms, and overshadowing beneficence; they almost pay it divine honors, and

“Find a fane in every sacred grove.”

Near these trees the most esteemed pagodas are generally erected; under their shade the brahmins spend their lives in religious solitude; and the natives of all casts and tribes are fond of recreating in the cool recesses, beautiful walks, and lovely vistas of this umbrageous canopy, impervious to the hottest beams of a tropical sun.

A description of a tree in the island of Java, called the _Upas_, or Poison Tree, is given to the public by a surgeon belonging to the Dutch East India Company, of the name of Foersch, who was stationed at Batavia, in the year 1774. Surprising its this account may be, it is accompanied by so many public facts, and names of persons and places, that it is somewhat difficult to conceive it fabulous. The Upas grows about seven leagues from Batavia, in a plain surrounded by rocky mountains, the whole of which plain, containing a circle of ten or twelve miles round the tree, is totally barren. Nothing that breathes or vegetates can live within its influence. The bird that flies over it drops down dead. The beast that wanders into it expires. The whole dreadful area is covered with sand, over which lie scattered loose flints and whitened bones, Thus,

“Fierce in dread silence on the blasted heath, Fell Upas sits!”

This tree may be called the emperor’s great military magazine. In a solution of the poisonous gum which exudes from it, his arrows and offensive weapons are dipped; the procuring, therefore, of this poisonous gum, is a matter of as much attention as of difficulty. Criminals are only employed in this dreadful service. Of these, several every year are sent with a promise of pardon and reward if they procure it. Hooded in leather cases, with glass eyelet-holes, and secured as much as possible from the foul effluvia of the air they are to breathe, they undertake this melancholy journey, travelling always with the wind. About one in ten escapes, and brings away a little box of this direful commodity!

Every one skilled in natural history knows, that the mimosæ, or sensitive plants, close their leaves, and bend their joints, on the least touch. This is truly astonishing: but hitherto no end or design of nature has appeared from these motions; they soon recover themselves, and the leaves are expanded as before. Dionæ Muscipula, or Venus’s Fly Trap, is a newly discovered sensitive plant; and shows that nature may have some view towards its nourishment, in forming the upper joint of its leaf like a machine to catch food. Upon the middle of this lies the bait for the unhappy insect that becomes its prey. Many minute red glands, that cover its inner surface, and which, perhaps, discharge some sweet liquor, tempt the poor animal to taste them; and the instant these tender plants are irritated by its feet, the two lobes rise up, grasp it fast, lock the two rows of spines together, and squeeze it to death. Further, lest the strong efforts for life, in the creature thus taken, should serve to disengage it, three small erect spines are fixed near the middle of each lobe among the glands, that effectually put an end to all its struggles. Nor do the lobes ever open again, while the dead animal continues there. But it is nevertheless certain that the plant cannot distinguish between an animal and a mineral substance; for if we introduce a straw, or a pin, between the lobes, it will grasp it full as fast as if it were an insect. This plant grows in America, in wet shady places, and flowers in July and August. The largest leaves are about three inches long, and an inch and a half across the lobes: the glands of those exposed to the sun are of a beautiful red color; but those in the shade are pale, and inclining to green. The roots are squamous, sending forth few fibres, and are perennial. The leaves are numerous, inclining to bend downwards, and are placed in a circular order; they are jointed and succulent; the lower joint, which is a kind of stalk, is flat, longish, two-edged, and inclining to heart-shaped. In some varieties, they are serrated on the edges near the top. The upper joint consists of two lobes, each lobe is of a semi-oval form, with their margins furnished with stiff hairs, like eye-brows, which embrace or lock in each other when they are inwardly irritated. The upper surfaces of these lobes are covered with small red glands, each of which appears, when highly magnified, like a compressed arbutus berry. Among the glands, about the middle of each lobe, are three very small erect spines. When the lobes enclose any substance, they never open again while it continues there. If it can be shoved out, so as not to strain the lobes, they expand again; but if force is used to open them, so strong has nature formed the spring of their fibres, that one of the lobes will generally snap off, rather than yield. The stalk is about six inches high, round, smooth, and without leaves, ending in a spike of flowers. The flowers are milk-white, and stand, on foot stalks, at the bottom of which is a little painted bractea, or flower-leaf.

There is not an article in botany more admirable than a contrivance, visible in many plants, to take advantage of good weather, and to protect themselves against bad. They open and close their flowers and leaves in different circumstances; some close before sun-set, some after; some open to receive rain, some close to avoid it. The petals of many flowers expand in the sun; but contract at night, or on the approach of rain. After the seeds are fecundated, the petals no longer contract. All the trefoils may serve as a barometer to the husbandman; they always contract their leaves on an impending storm. Some plants follow the sun, others turn from it. Many plants, on the sun’s recess, vary the position of their leaves, which is styled, the _sleep of plants_. A singular plant was lately discovered in Bengal. Its leaves are in continual motion all day long; but when night approaches; they fall down from an erect posture to rest.[101]

A plant has a power of directing its roots for procuring food. The red whortle-berry, a low evergreen plant, grows naturally on the tops of our highest hills, among stones and gravel. This shrub was planted in an edging to a rich border, under a fruit wall. In two or three years it over-ran the adjoining deep-laid gravel walk, and seemed to fly from the border, in which not a runner appeared. An effort to come at food, in a bad situation, is extremely remarkable, in the following instance. Among the ruins of New Abbey, formerly a monastery in Galloway, there grows on the top of a wall, a plane tree, about twenty feet high. Straitened for nourishment in that barren situation, it several years ago directed roots down the side of the wall, till they reached the ground ten feet below; and now the nourishment it afforded to those roots during the time of their descending, is amply repaid, having every year, since that time, made vigorous shoots. From the top of the wall to the surface of the earth these roots have not thrown out a single fibre, but are now united in a single root.

Plants, when forced from their natural position, are endowed with the power to restore themselves. A hop-plant, twisting round a stick, directs its course from south to west, as the sun does. Untwist it, and tie it in the opposite direction, it dies. Leave it loose in the wrong direction, it recovers its natural direction in a single night. Twist the branch of a tree, so as to invert its leaves, and fix it in that position, if left in any degree loose, it untwists itself gradually, till the leaves be restored to their natural position. What better can an animal do for its welfare? A root of a tree meeting with a ditch in its progress, is laid open to the air. What follows? It alters its course, like a rational being, dips into the ground, surrounds the ditch, rises on the opposite side to its wonted distance from the surface, and then proceeds in its original direction. Lay a wet sponge near a root laid open to the air; the root will direct its course to the sponge. Change the place of the sponge; the root varies its direction. Thrust a pole into the ground at a moderate distance from a climbing plant; the plant directs its course to the pole, lays hold of it, and rises on it to its natural height. A honeysuckle proceeds in its course till it be too long for supporting its weight; and then strengthens itself by shooting into a spiral. If it meet with another plant of the same kind, they coalesce for mutual support, the one screwing to the right, the other to the left. The claspers of briony shoot into a spiral, and lay hold of whatever comes in their way for support. If, after completing a spiral of three rounds, they meet with nothing, they try again, by altering their course.

By comparing these and other instances of seeming voluntary motion in plants, with that share of life wherewith some of the inferior kind of animals are endowed, we can scarce hesitate at ascribing the superiority to the former: that is, putting sensation out of the question. Muscles, for instance, are fixed to one place as much as plants are; nor have they any power of motion, besides that of opening and shutting their shells; and in this respect, they have no superiority over the motion of the sensitive plant: nor does their action discover more sagacity, or even so much, as the roots of the plane tree, mentioned by Lord Kames.[102]

Beckmann’s History of Inventions and Discoveries presents us with an interesting account of Kitchen Vegetables and Garden Flowers, collected from numerous authorities; some parts of which I shall now transcribe, and incorporate with information derived from other sources.

Our foreign kitchen vegetables have, for the most part, been procured from the southern countries, but chiefly from Italy; and the number of them has rapidly increased, in the course of the last two centuries. Many of them require laborious attention to make them thrive in our climate. On the other hand, some grow so readily, and increase so much without culture, even in the open fields, that they have become like indigenous weeds, as is the case with hops, which at present abound in our hedges. Some plants, however, both indigenous and foreign, which were formerly raised by art and used at the table, are no longer cultivated, because we have become acquainted with others more beneficial.

Among many which were formerly cultivated, but at present are no longer esteemed, are the following. Winter-cresses, _erysimum barbarea_; common alexander, _smyrnium olosatrum_, which in the seventeenth century was used instead of celery; bulbous chærophyllum, the roots of which are still brought to market at Vienna, where they are boiled and eaten as salad. Rampion, _phyteuma spicata_, was formerly used in like manner. The earth nut, the tuberous roots of the _lathyrus tuberosus_, which grows wild in many parts of Germany, is still cultivated in Holland and in some districts on the Rhine. Rocket, _brassica eruca_, in Italian, _ruchette_, the young leaves of which were eaten by our forefathers as salad, and is still retained in Italy. And there are several others either but imperfectly known or little regarded.

Among the kitchen vegetables of which no certain traces are to be found in the works of the ancients, is spinage, _spinacea oleracea_. Its native country is unknown; but the name is new, and certainly derived from the nature of its prickly seeds. As far as I know, it first occurs in the year 1351, among the food used by the monks on fast-days; and at that time it was written _spinagium_ or _spinachium_.

The ancients were acquainted with curled cabbages, and even with some of those kinds which we call _broccoli_. Under this term is understood all those species, the numerous young flower heads of which, particularly in spring and autumn, can be used like cauliflowers. The broccoli used at present was however first brought from Italy to France, together with the name, about the end of the sixteenth century.

Our cauliflower, about the same time, was first brought from the Levant to Italy; and in the end of the seventeenth century was transplanted thence to Germany. For a long time the seeds were procured annually from Cyprus, Candia, and Constantinople, by the Venetians and Genoese, who sent them to every part of Europe, because at that time the art of raising seed was not understood. The seeds of cauliflowers were brought from Italy to Antwerp, where no seed was raised, or such only as produced degenerate plants. Prosper Alpinus, in the year 1588, found abundance of this vegetable in Egypt, and from his account there is reason to conjecture it was then very little known in Europe. Conrad Gesner seems not to have been acquainted with it; at any rate it is not mentioned by him in a list of the cabbage kind of plants. Even in the time of Bauhin, it must have belonged to those vegetables which were scarce; because he has been so particular in naming the garden in which he saw it. Von Hohberg, who wrote about 1682, says that cauliflower, a few years before, had been brought to Germany for the first time.--It would be difficult to define all the species of the cabbage kind, the leaves and flowers of which were used by the ancients as food; but it would be a task still more arduous to determine those that have esculent roots.

Potatoes were first imported into Europe, in the year 1565, by Hawkins, from Santa-Fe, New Mexico, Spanish America. They were planted for the first time in Ireland, by Sir Walter Raleigh, who had an estate in that kingdom. The natural history of the potatoe was so little understood, that a total ignorance which part of the plant was the proper food, had nearly ruined any further attention towards its cultivation. For perceiving green apples appear on the stems, these were first supposed to be the fruit; but on being boiled, and finding them unpalatable, or rather nauseous, Raleigh was disgusted with his acquisition, nor thought any more of cultivating this plant. Accident, however, discovered the real fruit, owing to the ground being turned over, through necessity, that very season; and to his surprise, a plentiful crop was found under ground, which being boiled, proved nourishing to the stomach, and grateful to the taste. On its utility being known, its cultivation became general through Ireland. It found its way to this kingdom, and was first planted on the western coast, in consequence of a vessel containing some potatoes, being wrecked at the village of Formby, in Lancashire; a place still famed for this excellent vegetable.

Asparagus was first planted in England in the year 1662, in the reign of Charles II. Artichokes were first introduced about the same time. Cos lettuces were originally brought from the island of Cos, near Rhodes, in the Mediterranean. Turnips were brought into this country from Hanover. In the time of Henry VIII, several kinds of fruits and plants were cultivated in England, as apricots, and a fine gooseberry from Flanders; also salads, carrots, and other edible roots. These vegetables were before this period imported from Holland and Flanders. So that Queen Catherine, to procure a salad, had to dispatch a messenger to fetch it from those countries. Fruit seems to have been scarce in the time of Henry VII. In an original manuscript, signed by himself, and kept in the Remembrance office, it appears that apples were not less than one or two shillings each, and that a red one cost two shillings. The great plenty and variety of vegetables displayed upon modern tables, through every month in the year, evidently shows what superior blessings we enjoy, in this respect, compared with those of our forefathers.

Some of the flowers introduced into our gardens, and now cultivated either on account of their beauty, or the pleasantness of their smell, have been procured from plants which grew wild, and which have been changed, or, according to the opinion of florists, improved by the art of the gardener. The greater part of them however came originally from distant countries, where they grow in as great perfection as ours, without the assistance of man. It is probable that the modern taste for flowers came from Persia to Constantinople, and was imported thence to Europe for the first time, in the sixteenth century. At any rate, many of the productions of our flower-gardens were conveyed to us by that channel. Clusius and his friends, in particular, contributed very much to excite this taste; and the new plants brought from both the Indies by travellers who frequently visited these countries, tended to increase it. That period also produced some skilful gardeners, who carried on a considerable trade in the roots and seeds of flowers; and these, likewise assisted to render it more general. Among these were John and Vespasian Robin, gardeners to Henry IV, of France, and Emanuel Sweert, gardener to the emperor Rodolphus II, from whom the botanists of that time procured many rarities, as appears from different passages of their works.

Simon de Tovar, a Spanish physician, brought the tuberose to Europe before the year 1594 from the East Indies, where it grows wild in Java and Ceylon, and sent some roots of it to Barnard Paludanus, who first made this flower publicly known, in his annotations on Linschoten’s voyage. The full tuberoses were first procured from seed by one Le Cour, at Leyden, who kept them scarce for some years, by destroying the roots. The propagation of them in most countries is attended with difficulties: but in Italy, Sicily, and Spain, it requires no trouble; and at present the Genoese send a great many roots to England, Holland, and Germany. The oldest botanists classed them among the hyacinths, and their modern name _polianthes tuberose_ was given them by Linnæus in his Hortus Cliffortianus.

The auricula, _primula auricula_, grows wild among the long moss covered with snow, on the confines of Switzerland and Steyermark, whence it was brought to our gardens, where, by art and accident, it has produced more varieties than any other species of flower. I do not know who first transplanted it from its native soil. Pluche says only that some roots were pulled up by Walloon merchants, and carried to Brussels. However, this is certain, that it was first cultivated with care by the Flemings, who were very successful in propagating it. In the time of Clusius, most of the varieties of the auricula were scarce.

The common fritillary, or chequered lily, _fritillaria meleagris_, was first observed in some parts of France, Hungary, Italy, and other warm countries, and introduced into gardens about the middle of the sixteenth century. At first it was called _lilium variegatum_; but Noel Capperon, an apothecary at Orleans, who collected a great many scarce plants, gave it the name of _fritillaria_, because the red or reddish-brown spots of the flower form regular squares. It was first called _meleagris_ by Dodonæus, because the feathers of that fowl are variegated almost in the same manner.

The roots of the magnificent crown imperial, _fritillaria imperialis_, were about the middle of the sixteenth century brought from Persia to Constantinople, and were carried thence to the Emperor’s garden at Vienna, from which they were dispersed all over Europe. This flower was first known by the Persian name _tusac_, until the Italians gave it that of _corona imperialis_, or crown imperial. It has been imagined that the figure of it is to be found represented on the coins of Herod, and that, on this account, it has been considered as the lily so much celebrated in the Scripture.

The Persian lily, _fritillaria Persica_, which is nearly related to it, was made known almost about the same time. The bulbs or roots were brought from Susa to Constantinople, and for that reason it was formerly called _lilium Susianum_.

African and French marigolds, _tagetes erecta_ and _patula_, are indigenous in South America, and were known to botanists under the name of _caryophillus Indicus_, from which is derived the French appellation _œillet d’ Inde_. Cordus calls them, from their native country, _tanacetum Peruvianum_.

Among the most beautiful ornaments of our gardens, is the bella-donna lily, _amaryllis formosissima_, the flower of which, composed of six petals, is of a deep red color, and in a strong light, or when the sun shines upon it, has an agreeable yellow lustre like gold. The first roots of it ever seen in Europe were procured in 1593, on board a ship which had returned from South America, by Simon de Tovar, a physician at Seville. In the year following, he sent a description of this flower to Clusius; and as he had at the same time transmitted some roots to Bernard Paludanus, and count d’Aremberg, the former sent a dried flower, and the latter an accurate drawing of it, to Clusius, who published it in 1601. One of the Robins gave, in 1608, a larger and more correct figure, which was afterwards copied by Bry, Parkinson, and Rudbeck; but a complete description, with a good engraving, was published in 1742, by Linnæus, who in 1737 gave to that genus the name by which they are known at present. Tovar received it from South America, where it was found by Plumier and Barrere, and at a later period by Thiery de Menonville. At first it was classed with the narcissus, and it was afterwards called _lilio-narcissus_, because its flower resembled that of the lily, and its roots those of the narcissus. It was named _flos-Jacobæus_, because some imagined that they discovered in it a likeness to the badge of the knights of the order of St. James in Spain, whose founder, in the fourteenth century, could not indeed have been acquainted with this beautiful amaryllis.

Another species of this genus is the Guernsey lily, _amaryllis Sarniensis_, which in the magnificence of its flower is not inferior to the former. This plant was brought from Japan, where it was found by Kæmpfer, and also by Thunberg, during his travels some years ago in that country. It was first cultivated in the beginning of the seventeenth century, in the garden of John Morin, at Paris, where it flowered, for the first time, on the 7th of October, 1634. It was then made known by Jacob Cornutus, under the name of _narcissus Japonicus flore rutilo_. After this it was again noticed by John Ray, an Englishman, in 1665, who called it the _Guernsey lily_, which name it still very properly bears. A ship returning from Japan was wrecked on the coast of Guernsey, and a number of the bulbs of this plant, which were on board, being cast on shore, took root in that sandy soil. As they soon increased, and produced beautiful flowers, they were observed by the inhabitants, and engaged the attention of Mr. Hatton, the governor’s son, whose botanical knowledge is highly spoken of by Ray, and who sent roots of them to several of his friends who were fond of cultivating curious plants. Of this elegant flower Dr. Douglass gave a description and figure in a small treatise published in 1725, which is quoted by Linnæus in his Bibliotheca, but not by Haller.

Of the numerous genus of the ranunculus, florists, to speak in a botanical sense, have obtained a thousand different kinds; for, according to the manner in which they are distinguished by gardeners, the varieties increase almost every summer.

The principal part of them, however, and those most esteemed, were brought to us from the Levant. Some were carried from that part of the world so early as in the time of the crusades; but most of them have been introduced into Europe from Constantinople since the end of the sixteenth century, particularly the Persian ranunculus, the varieties of which, if I am not mistaken, hold at present the first rank. Clusius describes both the single and the full flowers as new rarities. This flower was in the highest repute during the time of Mahomet IV. His Grand Vizir, Cara Mustapha, well known by his hatred against the Christians and the siege of Vienna, in 1683, wishing to turn the Sultan’s thoughts to some milder amusement than that of the chase, for which he had a strong passion, diverted his attention to flowers; and, as he remarked that the Emperor preferred the ranunculus to all others, he wrote to the different Pachas throughout the whole kingdom to send him seeds or roots of the most beautiful kinds. The Pachas of Candia, Cyprus, Aleppo, and Rhodes, paid most regard to this request; and the elegant flowers which they transmitted to court were shut up in the seraglio as unfortunate offerings to the voluptuousness of the Sultan, till some of them, by the force of money, were at length freed from their imprisonment. The ambassadors from the European courts, in particular, made it their business to procure roots of as many kinds as they could, which they sent to their different sovereigns. Marseilles, which at that period carried on the greatest trade to the Levant, received on this account these flowers very early; and a person there, of the name of Malaval is said to have contributed very much to disperse them all over Europe.

Some of our most common flowering shrubs have been long introduced into the gardens: the bay-tree has been cultivated more than two centuries; it is mentioned by Tusser, in the list of garden plants inserted in his work called, “Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry,” printed in 1573. The laurel was introduced by Cole, a merchant at Hampstead, some years before 1629, when Parkinson published his Paradisus Terrestris, and at that time we had in our gardens oranges, myrtles of three sorts, lauristinus, cypress, phyllyrea, alaternus, arbuttus; a cactus, brought from Bermuda, and the passion-flower, which last had flowered here, and showed a remarkable peculiarity, by rising from the ground near a month sooner, if a seedling plant, than if it grew from roots brought from Virginia.

_Crust of the Earth._

[In the preceding section the Author has noticed the _superficies_ of the earth principally; as its inequalities because of seas, lakes, rivers, mountains, vallies, &c. The _rocky_, and _earthy_ masses and strata, which cover the nucleus of our globe, are scarcely mentioned at all. Whether the _central_ parts of the earth be solid, soft, or hollow, and filled with gaseous matter, is not the subject of enquiry here: but the _composition_ and _arrangement_ of the _solid crust_ of the planet come under consideration.

As it regards the composition of the crust of the earth considered principally, it consists of _metallic oxides_. The bases of the different earths are well known to be _metals_. The metal called _Silicon_, is the base of silex or flint--_Aluminum_ is the metallic base of pure clay--_Calcium_, of lime--_Magnesium_, of magnesia--_Potasium_, of potash, &c. Iron, also, enters largely into the composition; and soda, whose metallic base is _sodium_, forms a considerable portion.

These bases, at their creation, existed in an _uncombined_ state, as did all the elementary substances. When they entered into combination with _oxygen_ they became _earths_, which are simple metallic oxides, which readily combine with the _acids_, in which combination they are generally seen, though not always, at the earth’s surface; as carbonate of lime, or common limestone; the composition of which is _calcium_, _oxygen_, and _carbonic acid_.

Rocks of the _silicious_ family are not considered _earthy salts_, though, occasionally, they may contain a small per cent. of acid. They are called _earthy compounds_. _Granite_ is an instance; composed of _feldspar_, _quartz_, and _mica_. Gneiss, and mica slate are of similar composition, though in different proportions, and under different arrangements.

It will readily occur to the reader that there are some other earths, and other substances also, as the acids, and gases, which enter into the composition of the earth’s crust, though in small proportions, and, therefore, are not considered _principal_ ingredients, and hence not noticed in this general sketch.

The rocky, or stony substances, composed of the above elements, under the influence of chemical affinities, and other principles, are found in _crystalline_, _stratified_, _amorphous_, and _aggregate masses_. The _position_, _structure_, and _contents_ of these masses will develope the _natural history of the solid crust of our Earth_.

In order to facilitate this development, the rocks have been divided, according to their age into,

1. _Primitive Rocks._ These were deposited _first_, as is evident from their position, being the lowest of all the rocks. Their name indicates their relative age.

2. _Transition Rocks._ These rocks are deposited immediately above the primitive, of course subsequently to them. They are called _transition_ rocks, because they were deposited as the earth was _passing_ from an uninhabitable to a habitable state, as is evident from the fact that _they contain the first traces of organized being imbedded in them_.

3. _Secondary Rocks._ These are deposited next in succession to the transition rocks, and mark a _third_ grand geological epoch, by being almost altogether a _mechanical_ deposition, and lie _horizontally_ when _in situ_, and contain an increase of organic remains, both in quantity and variety.

4. _Tertiary Rocks._ These derive their name from their succession to the secondary, and of course mark the _fourth_ geological epoch in the history of the arrangement of the earth’s crust, which completed its redemption from the abyss of waters, and fitted it for the habitation of man.

This division of the rocks designates the _order of time_ in which they were successively deposited, as is evident from their position.

Considering these rocks _in situ_, they may be reckoned _general formations_, extended all around the globe in concentric circles, as the coats of an onion around its centre, in the order above stated, beginning with the primitive rocks.

It is, however, well known that _fractures_ and _dislocations_ prevail to a great extent, the result of violence subsequently to the deposition of these rocks, removing large portions of them _out of place_. But this circumstance need not interrupt the grand _natural_ order of the construction of the earth’s crust.

There is also a class of stony substances which follow no general laws, either in regard to _position_, _form_, or _age_. These are volcanic and igneous productions of every kind; as basalt, lava, &c. These shall be mentioned subsequently.

In the above remarks we have an _outline_ of the structure of the crust of the earth; but in order to have a more satisfactory development, the principal and distinctive features of the leading rock formations must be stated in order.

_Primitive Rocks._

1. _This class occupies the lowest position as a class_, yet the individual rocks of this class have a general order of position among themselves. Granite is lowest; then Gneiss--Mica Slate--Clay Slate--Primitive Limestone--Porphyry--Sienite--and Greenstone.

_These rocks are sometimes observed alternating with each other, and sometimes passing into each other._ But these circumstances do not effect the general order. When the formations are _undisturbed_, in penetrating them we should come to granite last; and it is universally the lowest of all observed rock formations.

2. _This class is generally, indeed we may say, universally, crystalline in its structure._ Each integrant particle is not a _perfect crystal_; but throughout the mass there is a partial crystallization, such as would be the result of an effort to crystallize perfectly, under a great pressure; in which case the particles would mutually interfere with each other.

The very fact of this crystallization implies _first_; a prevailing state of _unagitated solution_ of the crystallizing materials: _secondly_: that their crystallization was the effect of _chemical action_.

3. _The primitive rocks contain no fragments, either angular, or rounded by attrition, imbedded in them_; simply because no rocks preceded them, and of course could not be broken up. It is, however, to be carefully observed, that perfect crystals of different kinds are found imbedded in primitive rocks. When they prevail to a great extent they constitute _porphyritic rocks_. It is evident that these crystals must have been formed before the consolidation of the including rock, and must have been suspended in the solution which formed the rock upon crystallization.

4. _The primitive rocks contain no traces of organized bodies._ This is an universal characteristic, and proves incontestibly that they were formed _previous to the existence of organized beings_.

5. _The primitive rocks are usually inclined at a high angle to the horizon, and frequently are vertical._ This seems to be the result of crystallization, as mechanical deposition would place them _horizontally_, having the general bearing of the curve of the earth.

6. The principal primitive rocks are granite, gneiss, and mica slate.

They are composed of the same materials, in different proportions; viz; feldspar, quartz, and mica. These three minerals constitute granite, when feldspar is the _base_, and the quartz is embedded in a crystalline state, and the mica interspersed generally. They constitute gneiss, when the feldspar _decreases_, and the mica _increases_, and is arranged in layers. They compose mica slate, when the feldspar almost _disappears_, and the mica and quartz are intimately united.

7. Though the primitive rocks occupy the lowest position _in situ_, yet they sometimes form, not only the _summits_ of lofty mountains, but sometimes the _mountain mass_ itself, and appear at the surface. In these cases it is evident that they have been _upheaved_ by a force acting beneath, and forcing them through the superincumbent rocks, which were rent, and glided down the sides of the rising mass of primitive rocks, leaving them bare and visible at the summit. In this case the rocks which were uppermost before the mountain mass began to rise, would be found at the _foot_ of the mountain; and the rocks which were next to the uppermost, would be found immediately above them, reclining on the side of the mountain; and thus _ascending through the ages of the rocks to the summit of the mountain, where we find the primitive rock formations constituting its apex_.

This phenomena of primitive rocks forming the apices of mountains may be explained differently. The primitive rocks, and other classes in succession, _may have been deposited in mountain masses_, and the upper rocks being _softer_ and more _exposed_, have yielded to the ravages of the elements, and to the demolishing force of the deluge, and thus laid the primitive rocks bare. The _first_ seems to be the most probable supposition.

8. It is beyond a doubt, that in some instances, an upheaving force has operated, and elevated the granitic summits of mountains; and so powerful was the upheaving force that the blocks of granite have broke at the apex of the elevation, and some of them hang over perpendicularly in awful grandeur; and others have rolled down the sides far into the plains below.

This theory of the formations of some of the principal mountains would be firmly established in every mind, if every one could have an opportunity of inspecting them without prejudice. The primitive rocks would be seen shooting up from the centre of the mountain, into lofty pyramidal elevations, resembling, sometimes, lofty spires, or cupolas; and sometimes the summit is rounded off as a dome. The rocks are in a _verticle_ position, which proves they could not have been _deposited there_ from a state of quiet repose.

Sometimes two summits project from the same common base, having an intervening valley or depression between them. In this case, the rocks which lay uppermost before the mass was upheaved, upon upheaving, broke and glided down the sides, on which they depend in magnificent drapery; but the portion of them which was situated _between_ the uprising summits, not being able to escape, is found in the valley which is formed between the peaks.

In some instances, as the mass is elevating itself it bears up upon it a large mass of the over-laying rock, which forms the apex of the mountain, crowning it as a stately castle crowns the summit of the hill on which it is built. In this case the crowning mass is entirely different, and perfectly distinct from the subjacent materials. _For some further remarks on the structure, and formation of mountains, and mountain masses, and the deluge, see Theory of the Earth, end of Sect. 2, chap. iv._

9. As there was a rapid and irresistible chemical action, at a very high temperature, going on during this first great geological period, and the whole globe in almost omnipotent fermentation, there is no difficulty in accounting for the irregularities, contortions, dislocations and fractures which we observe in the earth. This whole process was anterior to the existence of organized being.

_Transition Rocks._

1. _This class was deposited subsequently to the primitive rocks, and after they had consolidated._ This is evident from the fact that, in their natural order, they _overlay_ the primitive, which could not be the case, unless they were deposited subsequently, any more than the roof of the house could be put on before the foundation was laid.

2. _Their structure is evidently the result both of chemical action, and mechanical deposition._ These principles appear to have acted sometimes conjointly; and at other times to have alternated. Hence the crystallization is more imperfect than in the primitive, and occasionally seems to disappear.

3. _From the complex action under which they were deposited, they are generally, neither verticle nor horizontal, but inclined about between these two positions._

4. _They were deposited as the primitive chaotic ocean was subsiding, and the elevations of the new-born earth had recently emerged._ Hence they are found next to the summits of the primitive mountains, _on their flanks_.

5. _The transition rocks contain some fragments of all the primitive class._ This would be the natural consequence of the summits of primitive rock formations being exposed to the fury of the elements; which would rend portions of them, and thus deposit the fragments mechanically in the floods subsiding below on the flanks of the mountains.

6. _In these rocks we meet with the first traces of organized being._ (SILLIMAN.) This fact is irresistible proof that these rocks were deposited _subsequently_ to the existence of the enclosed remains. The probability is, that the animals and vegetables found in transition rocks, were created at the _commencement_ of the transition period, and their remains deposited as the rocks were successively deposited.

It is remarkable that these organized beings belonged to genera now extinct. They were of an inferior class, having neither the delicacy, complexity, or sensibility of those which we now see. They were crude, and gross, corresponding to the condition of the earth at the time of their existence.

It is also evident that they lived, and died, and were inhumed in the same places; as they present, generally, no marks of violence, and their most delicate parts are well preserved.

These organic remains occupy vast districts of country, and constitute, principally, large masses of marbles, sometimes many hundreds of feet in the interior of mountains. They are identified with the rock, and frequently impart to it its beauty.

7. The reader will readily perceive that this class of rocks marks the _commencement_ of _sensitive_ existence. And it would seem, from an examination of fossil remains generally, that the creation of animals and vegetables was _progressive_, produced with structures and functions adapted to the condition of the globe, at the time of their creation.

_Secondary Rocks._

1. _These rocks are so called, because they are the second great deposit, after the grand foundation of the primitive rocks were laid._ Of course they point out the third great geological period.

2. _Their position is horizontal, corresponding to the general curve of the earth._ This regards their natural position. They are found, under particular circumstances, inclined to the horizon. They occupy a lower position on the sides of mountains, resting on the transition class, which is immediately subjacent _in natural order_.

3. _This class is much less chemical, indeed very little so, in its structure._ It is the result of mechanical deposition, after the chemical action had nearly ceased in the great primitive and retiring abyss.

4. _These rocks abound more in fragments of other rocks, and in the remains of organized beings, than the preceding class._ This would be natural, as a greater extent of the earth’s surface would be exposed to the elements, and thus the destruction would be greater: and as the condition of the earth was better for sustaining sensitive beings, these would of course be more abundant both in _kind_ and _number_.

It is also well ascertained, from the fossil remains found in this class of rocks, that during their deposition, there existed many species of animals and plants which do not now exist: that many of the animals were _monsters_ of incredible size and voracity; of such hugeness, grossness, and ferocity as were suitable to the then prevailing condition of the earth.

The researches of the last ten or fifteen years, in England, have brought to light the skeletons of animals, approaching the _lizard genus_, from _sixty to seventy feet long_!! They are abundant in England, and occasionally found on the continent. Who can say, but that the other genera of animals then existing, were also as much more vast, and misshapen than their present existing types? A single glance at the _geological reminiscences_ of this ancient period must convince any observer, that the vegetable, and specially the animal genera then existing were really astonishing both in _size_, _shape_, and _nature_.

It becomes a question of some interest, whether these huge animals ceased to exist, having found their graves in this secondary class of rocks, before the existence of man?

There are many reasons which induce a supposition they did cease to exist. Man could scarcely have been safe in the land of these wonderful creatures. Moreover, it is probable their constitutions were adapted to the condition of the world at this period, which we suppose to have been more gross in its air, and water, and more ardent in its climate; as it had not yet settled, and dried; and the waters had not yet sufficiently subsided, to render the earth the abode of the more delicate land-animals, birds, and specially man. It is probable the earth was marshy, with numerous inland lakes, to a considerable extent; the waters still somewhat turbid; the air gross and moist; and the temperature still very high. Such a state of the planet would suit the constitutions of such monsters as the _ichthyosaurus_, and _plesiosaurus_, which would perish as the condition of the globe became more pure, and its temperature reduced.

_Tertiary Rocks._

1. _These rocks were deposited as the earth was actually, and finally redeemed from water, and became fit for the abode of the more delicate and gentle land-animals and birds._ Hence, it is very rare, if ever, the fossil remains of animals which live wholly on land, are found below this class of rocks. But man’s companion animals are found, as elephants, deer, horse, sheep, &c.

2. This class is not so extensively spread as the preceding classes. It includes the _diluvial_ and _alluvial_ formations, and indicate an alternation of fresh and sea waters in its deposition. This class covers the low countries as they slope from primitive districts towards the sea. Such grand vallies are called _diluvial_, because deposited chiefly by the great primitive ocean, as it retired through its last stages to its resting beds. The deposites at the mouths of rivers, or any other deposites from causes now in operation, are called _alluvial_.

3. Some of the principal members of this class are: 1. Argillaceous, and sandy depositions from the sea. 2. Marl, and gypsum, from fresh water. 3. Sand, and sandstone, with or without shells, from sea water. 4. Limestone, and silicious millstone grit, from fresh water.

_Conclusion._

From what has been said above we may clearly deduce the following particulars.

1. The crust of the earth is constructed of four great general classes of rocks: the _primitive_ at the foundation; the _transition_, laying immediately over the primitive; the _secondary_ immediately above these; and the _tertiary_ at the surface. In this arrangement we consider the rocks in their natural position.

2. The _position_, _structure_, and _organic remains_ of these classes, clearly point out a grand geological epoch, corresponding to the time of the deposition of each class, and thus indicate their relative ages. They indicate also the successive conditions of the globe as it passed from its gross chaotic state, to a state suitable for the habitation of man, and his companion animals.

3. _The natural history of the_ PRIMITIVE WORLD, _as deduced from_ GEOLOGICAL FACTS, CORRESPONDS _expressly in the_ ORDER _and_ NATURE OF THE EVENTS, WITH THE ACCOUNT GIVEN BY MOSES.

4. The gradual retiring of the primitive chaotic ocean, would give sufficient time for the production of those immense beds of marine animals which are found in the most solid and elevated mountains. During the prevalence of the sea, these beds would form at the bottom, and when it retired they would consolidate, with the mineral deposites, into rocks.

In this case the process is supposed to go on in a _quiet_ ocean, peaceably retiring, and leaving the deposition in layers. But we must not suppose the waters were always still, and peacefully retiring. If so, there could not have been such distinct and different deposites, in which different substances sometimes alternate. Moreover, in this case there would have been but one deposition, which would have been regular and continuous, changing its character simply by almost imperceptible degrees, and extending all round the globe, as the globe was at first wholly immersed in water. But this is not the case. There is every reason to believe there were violent agitations, earthquakes, volcanos, tempests, deluges, &c, _occasionally_, during the subsidence of the primitive waters. Hence the _dislocations_, _contortions_, _protrusions of lower rocks through upper ones_, and the _upheaving of the bottom of the seas in various places into ridges, and mountains_, producing a tremendous _deflux of waters_ frequently, which would wash out channels and vallies, and carry off fragments of rocks, &c, into the waters below.

Hence it is evident that the elevations on the earth’s surface have been _partly_ caused by subterranean force upheaving them; and _partly_ by currents of water wearing away channels, defiles, vallies, &c.

The natural result of upheaving, _in mass_, the bed of the ocean, would be to protrude a body in which were embedded the marine exuviæ throughout the whole depth of the marine deposites. Hence mountain masses are sometimes composed of limestone, in which are found immense quantities of sea shells, throughout the mass, and entering intimately into the composition of the rock. This, without doubt, is the true origin of these marine mountain remains.

Some have been disposed to attribute them to the _deluge_ in the days of Noah; but this is impossible for two reasons. 1. The deluge did not continue a sufficient length of time to allow these animals to be produced in such quantities, or to bury them so deeply in the earth. 2. The _rising_ waters could not have carried them to their present places; because, in that case they would be found at the _surface_ of the earth, or near it _exclusively_; whereas they are found buried thousands of feet in mountains, and embedded in solid rocks. They could not have been _transported_ by the waters, because they would have suffered violence, and been fractured, and compressed; which is not generally the case. They are found perfectly preserved, though of such delicate structure as would seem to have been destroyed by the least violence. Hence it is evident they are buried where they lived and died in perfect tranquillity.

It is true, there are instances in which the _position_ and _nature_ of the animals clearly prove that they were inhumed by some _sudden_ catastrophe. For instance: when we see the fossil remains of delicate, and very active fish so placed as to indicate they were _caught_, we are convinced they perished _suddenly_. But this case is always _local_, and may have been produced by an earthquake, or volcanic action.

That the primitive chaotic ocean occupied the earth a long time, _generally_ in a state of tranquillity, though occasionally, strongly agitated, and rising into overwhelming deluges and gradually retired, is evident also, from the fact, that the most delicate _plants_, _leaves_, and _flowers_ are found inhumed, as the marine animals above, _in a state of perfect preservation_.

All the above phenomena took place prior to the creation of man.

_Appendix._

There is another class of rocky substances which obey no settled laws, and, therefore, are noticed here in an appendix: _They are rocks and substances of evident igneous origin_: as _basalt_, _obsidium_, _lavas of all textures_, and _trap_ rocks _frequently_, perhaps generally. These have one common origin: they are also of similar composition generally; and in this approach the composition of primitive rocks. They have been evidently _ejected from the bowels of the earth in a melted state_. They are found in almost all countries; and in some cases form mountains, and cover the surfaces of large districts to an astonishing depth: as in the north of Ireland, more than 500 feet thick, and over an area of 800 square miles. (URE.)

Being _protruded_ from beneath in a melted state they are found injected through the superincumbent rocks in _shafts_ or _veins_ of various sizes, from several inches to several feet. Sometimes being unable to rend the solid rocks above they are injected _between their strata_. They are generally somewhat crystalline in structure, because deposited on the same principles as granite, when undisturbed. From their _position_, _superficial extent_, and _quantity_, we infer they are the products of all ages, and of immense igneous action, seated at an unknown distance beneath the surface of the earth. Hence we may have some idea of the vast amount of igneous action which operated in the early ages of our planet. It must have been violently shaken from the centre to the surface.]

We may well ask, in the language of a German philosopher, Who can enumerate all the blessings which the vegetable kingdom affords? It is at least manifest that all the arrangements of Providence, in this respect, have for their grand object the advantage of the creatures. God has provided for the wants of each individual. He has assigned to each that plant, which is most proper for its nourishment and support. There is not a plant on the earth, but what has its particular destination and use. What sentiments of veneration and gratitude should we feel, at the sight of lawns, gardens, fields, and meadows! Here his beneficent care has collected all that is necessary for the comfort and preservation of the inhabitants of the earth. Here, oh God! thou openest thy hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living creature! Here every herb, ear of corn, flower, and tree, proclaims thy goodness! How closely might our modern geologists walk with God, if, like a Boyle, and a Ray, every new discovery led them to an increasing admiration of Divine wisdom and omnipotent power![103] for

“Philosophy, baptiz’d In the pure fountain of eternal love, Has eyes indeed; and viewing all she sees As meant to indicate a God to man, Gives him his praise, and forfeits not her own.”

To meet God in the immensity of his works, and trace him in the operations of his hand, gives expansion to intellect, opens new sources of enjoyment, and greatly exalts the character of man. The sacred writers conduct us to the _forest_, and, after selecting particular trees, press on our attention their emblematical uses.

* * * * *

_Section_ III.--MINERALS.

Gold -- Silver -- Platina -- Mercury -- Copper -- Iron -- Tin -- Lead -- Nickel -- Zinc -- Palladium -- Bismuth -- Antimony -- Tellurium -- Arsenic -- Cobalt -- Manganese -- Tungsten -- Molybdenum -- Uranium -- Titanium -- Chromium -- Columbium or Tantalium -- Cerium -- Oxmium -- Rodium -- Iridium -- Religious Improvement.

Some parts of the earth’s surface are barren and unfruitful, yielding no pleasant herb for cattle, nor vegetable for the service of man. But the bowels of the earth in such places are commonly stored with rich mines, and useful minerals. Without these what could we do in the field, the house, the market, or crossing the seas? Surely, the infinitely wise Architect has not made any thing in vain! It is deserving of notice, says Mr. Parkes, that if minerals had been placed on the _surface_ of the globe, they would have occupied the greatest part of the earth, and prevented its cultivation. Their being deposited _below_, is a proof of management and design worthy of that Being who could furnish so great a variety of this class of bodies.

There are twenty-seven distinct metals, which possess properties very different and distinct from each other. For a knowledge of most of these, we are indebted to the more perfect modes of analysis, which modern chemistry has afforded. The ancients were acquainted with only seven. The properties of these were tolerably well known to the early chemists, who acquired their knowledge from the alchemists. Metals are divided into two classes, by modern chemists. The one contains the malleable, and the other the brittle metals. This last class is sometimes subdivided into those which are easily, and those which are difficultly fused. The malleable metals are eleven, namely, Gold, Silver, Platina, Mercury, Copper, Iron, Tin, Lead, Nickel, Zinc, and Palladium. The brittle metals are Bismuth, Antimony, Tellurium, Arsenic, Cobalt, Manganese, Tungsten, Molybdenum, Uranium, Titanium, Chromium, Columbium or Tantalium, Cerium, Oxmium, Rodium, and Iridium.

_Gold_ is the heaviest of all metals excepting platina; it is neither very elastic nor hard; but so malleable and ductile, that it may be drawn into very fine wire, or beaten into leaves so thin as to be carried away by the slightest wind. Dr. Black has calculated, that it would take fourteen millions of films of gold, such as is on some fine gilt wire, to make the thickness of one inch: whereas fourteen million leaves of common printing paper make near three quarters of a mile. According to Fourcroy, the ductility of gold is such, that one ounce of it is sufficient to gild a silver wire more than thirteen hundred miles long. Such is the tenacity of gold, that a wire 1-16th of an inch in diameter will support a weight of 500 pounds without breaking. Gold may be known from all other metals by its bright yellow color, and its weight. Its specific gravity is 19.3; when heavier, it must be combined with platina; when lighter, and of a deep yellow color, it is alloyed with copper; and if of a pale color, with silver.

Arabia had formerly its gold mines. The gold of Ophir, so often mentioned in Scripture, must be that which was procured in Arabia, on the coast of the Red Sea. We are assured by Sanchoniathon, and by Herodotus, quoted by Eusebius, that the Phœnicians carried on a considerable traffic in gold, even before the days of Job, who thus speaks of it, “Then shall thou lay up gold as dust, and the gold of Ophir as stones of the brooks.” Gold is found in Peru, as well as in several other parts of the world. It generally occurs in a metallic state, and most commonly in the form of grains. It frequently is met with in the ores of other metals, but is chiefly found in the warmer regions of the earth. It abounds in the sands of many African rivers, in South America, and in India. Several rivers in France contain gold in their sands. It has also been discovered in Hungary, Sweden, Norway and Ireland. Near Pamplona, in South America, single laborers have collected upwards of £200 worth of wash-gold in a day. In the province of Sonora, the Spaniards discovered a plain, fourteen leagues in extent, in which they found wash-gold at the depth of only 16 inches; the grains were of such a size that some of them weighed 72 ounces, and in such quantities, that in a short time, with a few laborers, they collected 1,000 marks, (equal in value to £31,219 10_s._ sterling,) even without taking time to wash the earth which had been dug. They found one grain which weighed 132 ounces; this is deposited in the royal cabinet at Madrid, and is worth £500.[104] The native gold found in Ireland was in grains, from the smallest size to upwards of two ounces. Only two grains were found of greater weight, one of which weighed 5, and the other 22 ounces.[105] Gold mines were formerly worked in Scotland; and indeed now, grains of this metal are often found in brooks after a great flood. It has been said, that at the nuptials of James V, covered dishes filled with coins of _Scotch gold_ were presented to the guests by way of dessert. Standard gold of Great Britain is twenty-two parts pure gold, and two parts copper; it is therefore called gold of “twenty-two carots fine.” Some have thought that Moses made use of sulphuret of potass to render the calf of gold adored by the Israelites soluble in water. Stahl wrote a long dissertation to prove that this was the case.

_Silver_ is a heavy, sonorous, brilliant, white metal; exceedingly ductile, and of great malleability and tenacity. It possesses these latter properties in so great a decree, that it may be beaten into leaves much thinner than any paper, or drawn into wire as fine as a hair without breaking. Fifty square inches of silver leaf weigh not more than a grain. The specific gravity of silver is 10.500. When perfectly pure, it is a very soft metal. To know when it is pure, heat it in a common fire, or in the flame of a candle: if it be alloyed, it will become tarnished; but if it be pure, it will remain perfectly white. Our standard silver is formed with fifteen parts pure silver, and one part copper.

Silver is found in various parts of the world in a metallic state; also in the states of a sulphuret, a salt, and an oxide. Native silver is found chiefly in the mines of Potosi. Sulphuret of silver occurs in the silver mines of Germany, Hungary, Saxony and Siberia. Oxides of silver are also common in some of the silver mines in Germany. Silver has lately been found in a copper-mine in Cornwall.[106] Most of our lead mines also afford it, particularly some in Scotland. In the county of Antrim, in Ireland, there is a mine so rich, that every thirty pounds of lead ore is said to produce one pound of silver. By the silver which was produced from the lead mines in Cardiganshire, Sir Hugh Middleton is said to have cleared two thousand pounds a month, and that this enabled him to undertake the great work of bringing the New River from Ware to London.

Silver was used in commerce eleven hundred years before the foundation of Rome. Moses, says, “And Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant.” At this period silver was not coined, but being only in bars, or ingots, in commerce was always weighed. In the museum of the Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburgh, is a piece of _native_ silver from China of such firmness, that coins have been struck from it without its having passed through the crucible.[107]

_Platina_, the heaviest of all metals, is nearly as white as silver, and difficultly fusible, though by great labor may be rendered malleable, so as to be wrought into utensils like other metals. It will resist the strongest heat of our fires without melting, and, like iron, is capable of being welded when properly heated. It is found in grains, in a metallic state, at St. Domingo: and also at Santa Fe, in Peru, in the language of whose inhabitants it means _little silver_. It has recently been discovered in an ore of silver found in Estremadura, existing in its metallic form. This metal was first introduced into England by Charles Wood, who brought it from Jamaica in the year 1741. It has been drawn into wire less than the two thousandth part of an inch in diameter. The specific gravity of hammered platina is 23.66, which is more than double that of lead.

_Mercury_, in the temperature of our atmosphere, is a fluid metal, having the appearance of melted silver: in this state it is neither ductile nor malleable; very volatile when heated; extremely divisible; and is the heaviest of all metals except platina and gold. We see it always in a fluid state, because it is so fusible that a small portion of caloric will keep it in a state of fluidity; but when submitted to a sufficient degree of cold, is similar to other metals, and may be beaten into plates. It has been determined, that at 39 degrees below zero of Fahrenheit’s thermometer is the point at which the congelation of mercury takes place. In the winter of 1799, Mr. Pepys froze 56 pounds of it into a solid and malleable mass. At Hudson’s Bay, frozen mercury has lately been reduced to sheets as thin as paper, by beating it upon an anvil that had previously been reduced to the same temperature. It is a substance so volatile that it may be distilled like water; and is sometimes purified in this way from mixture with other metals, being often adulterated with lead and bismuth. It is also so elastic when in a state of vapor, that it is capable of bursting the strongest vessels. According to Mr. Biddle, its specific gravity at 47 degrees above zero is 13.545; but when frozen into a solid at 40 below zero, 15.612.

This metal is brought to Europe from the East Indies and Peru; but is found in greater abundance at Almaden in Spain, where it is extracted from the ore by distillation. The quicksilver mine of Guanca Velica, in Peru, is 170 fathoms in circumference, and 480 deep. In this profound abyss are streets, squares, and a chapel where religious mysteries on all festival occasions are celebrated. Millions of flambeaux are continually burning to enlighten this subterranean abode. This mine generally affects those who work in it with convulsions. Notwithstanding this, the unfortunate victims of an insatiable avarice are crowded all together, and plunged _naked_ into this abyss. Tyranny has invented this refinement in cruelty, to render it impossible for any thing to escape its restless vigilance.

“Thus in the dark Peruvian mine confin’d, Lost to the cheerful commerce of mankind, The groaning captive wastes his life away, For ever exil’d from the realms of day; While, all forlorn and sad, he pines in vain For scenes he never shall possess again.”

Mercury is raised in such abundance in Spain, that in the year 1717 there remained above 1,200 tons of it in the magazines at Almaden, after the necessary quantity had been exported to Peru for the use of the silver mines there. The quicksilver mines of Idria, a town in the circle of Lower Austria, have been wrought constantly for 300 years, and are thought on the average to yield above 100 tons of quicksilver annually. Mercury is found also in Hungary and China; it occurs most commonly in argillaceous schistus, lime-stones, and sand-stones. It is likewise found in Sweden, amalgamated with silver, and frequently combined with sulphur. Running mercury is seen in globules, in some earths and stones in America, and is collected from the clefts of rocks. Cinnabar, or sulphuret of mercury, is also generally found in those countries which produce the fluid metal.[108]

_Copper_ is of a red color, very sonorous and elastic, and the most ductile of all metals, except gold. A wire 1-10th of an inch will support near 300 pounds. Its specific gravity is 8.66. It will not burn so easily as iron; which is evident from its not striking fire by collision. Copper-mines have been worked in China, Japan, Sumatra, and in the north of Africa. Native copper is generally found in Siberia, Sweden, Hungary, and some parts of France. Copper is found in several parts of England and Wales, particularly in Cornwall, and the Isles of Man and Anglesea. The copper pyrites found in Cornwall are _sulphuret_ of copper. Anglesea formerly yielded more than twenty thousand tons of copper annually: the vein of metal was originally more than seventy feet thick. Copper mines have not been worked in England above 160 years. Before that period, whenever the workmen met with copper ore in the tin mines of Cornwall, they threw it aside as useless, no English miner at that time knowing how to reduce it to a metallic state. To chemical science, therefore, we are indebted for such an ample supply of this valuable metal. It is asserted, that a large copper mine has been worked for some time in the state of New-Jersey in America, and that the ore raised there is brought to this country to be smelted. Native oxides of copper are found in Cornwall and in South America. Carbonate of copper occurs as a natural production in two varieties, called _malachite_ and _mountain green_. Sulphate of copper, of a very rich quality, is also found in the state of Connecticut. The stream in its course destroys vegetation; and where it settles in places near the spring, large lumps of metallic salt are collected. Bishop Watson relates, that the waters which issue from the copper mines in the county of Wicklow, in Ireland, are so impregnated with sulphate of copper, that one of the workmen having accidentally left a shovel in this water, found it some weeks after so incrusted with copper, that he imagined it was changed into copper. The proprietors of the mines, in pursuance of this hint, made proper receptacles for the water, and now find these streams of as much interest to them as the mines. When miners wish to know whether an ore contains copper, they drop a little nitric acid upon it; after a short time they dip a feather into the acid, and then wipe it over the polished blade of a knife; and if there be the smallest quantity of copper in it, the copper will be precipitated on the knife.[109] A mass of _native_ copper has been found in a valley in the Brazils, containing 2,666 pounds weight. The description of it in the Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Lisbon is said to be very interesting, as the largest specimen ever found before this weighs only ten pounds. In the museum of the Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburgh, is a piece of native malleable copper of extraordinary magnitude, found on the copper island lying to the east of Kamschatka.[110] The Romans were acquainted with this metal; for the only money used by that people, till the 485th year of their city, was made of it, when silver began to be coined. In Sweden, houses are covered with copper.[111]

_Iron_ is of a livid blueish color, and one of the hardest and most elastic of all metals. When dissolved, it has a nauseous styptic taste, and being strongly rubbed emits a peculiar smell. It is attracted by the magnet, and has the property of becoming itself magnetic. It is fused with great difficulty, but gives fire by collision with flint. An iron wire only one-tenth of an inch in diameter, will carry a weight of 450 pounds without breaking; and a wire of tempered steel, of the same size, will carry one of about 900 pounds. Iron becomes softer by heat, and has capability of being welded to another piece of the same metal so as to form one entire mass; and this may be done without melting either of the pieces. No other metal, except platina, possesses this singular properly, which renders it most suitable for every common purpose. Its specific gravity varies from 7.6 to 7.8.

This valuable metal is plentifully diffused throughout nature, pervading almost every thing, so as to be detected even in plants and animal fluids, and is the chief cause of color in earths and stones. It is found in large masses, and in various states, in the bowels of the earth. In the museum of the Academy of Sciences at Petersburgh is a mass of native iron twelve hundred pounds weight. In the northern parts of the world whole mountains are formed of iron ore, and many of these ores are magnetic. Of the English ores, the common Lancashire hematite produces the best iron. This metal is found in solution in many natural springs, and gives the character to all our chalybeate waters: besides which, there are some springs which contain iron in combination with sulphuric acid. These are called vitriolated waters. There are several in this land; but those at Chadwell near London, and at Swansea in Glamorganshire, are probably the most important.

As this metal possesses so many properties, exists in so many different states, and is capable of being applied to such a variety of excellent purposes, it is certainly the most useful of all the products of the mineral kingdom. It was used in the time of Moses, in whose writings Canaan is mentioned as “a land whose stones were iron.” The Greeks understood the method of tempering it. Homer, in the ninth book of his Odyssey, describes the fire-brand driven into the eye of Polyphemus, as hissing like hot iron immersed in water. The advantages which we derive from the magnetic property of iron are incalculable. To this we are indebted for the _mariner’s compass_, by which man is enabled to traverse the ocean, open a friendly or commercial intercourse with every quarter of the globe, and to steer his course with the utmost accuracy.

“Tall navies hence their doubtful way explore, And ev’ry product waft from ev’ry shore; Hence meagre want expell’d, and sanguine strife, For the mild charms of cultivated life.”

Iron may be moulded by the hammer into any form, and united into as many parts as the workman pleases, without rivets or solder. Were it not for this peculiar quality, many works of great importance could never have been executed. A most stupendous fabric, achieved by means of welded iron is the Chinese bridge of chains, hung over a dreadful precipice in the neighborhood of Kingtung, to connect two high mountains. The chains are twenty-one in number, stretched over the valley, and bound together by other cross chains, so as to form a perfect road from the summit of one immense mountain to that of the other.

Some idea of the extent and importance of the iron trade may be conceived from the following account, abridged from Malkin’s Scenery, &c, of South Wales. “Merthyr Tydvill was a very inconsiderable village till the year 1755, when the late Mr. Bacon obtained a lease of the iron and coal-mines of a district at least eight miles long, and four wide, for 99 years. Since then these mines have been leased by him to four distinct companies, and produce to the heirs of Mr. Bacon a clear annual income of ten thousand pounds. The part occupied by Mr. Crawshay contains now the largest set of iron works in the kingdom. He constantly employs more than two thousand workmen, and pays weekly for wages, coal, and other expenses of the works, twenty-five thousand pounds. The number of smelting furnaces belonging to the different companies at Merthyr is about sixteen. Around each of these furnaces are erected forges and rolling-mills, for converting pig into plate and bar-iron. These works have conferred so much importance on the neighborhood, that the obscure village of Merthyr Tydvill has become the largest town in Wales, and contains more than twelve thousand inhabitants.”

_Tin_ is white, a little elastic, and so exceedingly soft and ductile, that it may be beaten out into leaves thinner than paper. It is much more combustible than many of the metals; and is soluble in all the mineral acids. Its specific gravity is 7.291, or about 516 pounds to the cubic foot. This metal is found in Germany, Saxony, South America, the East Indies, and in England, chiefly in Cornwall and Devonshire. It must have been known very early, as it is mentioned in the books of Moses. Homer in his Iliad mentions the use of tin.

Pliny says, that the Romans learned the method of tinning their culinary vessels from the Gauls. They used tin to alloy copper, for making those elastic plates which they employ in shooting darts from their warlike machines. The addition of tin to copper renders that metal more fluid, and disposes it to assume all the impressions of the mould. It was probably with a view to this, that it was used by the ancient Romans in their coinage. Many of the imperial _large brass_, as they are called, are found to consist of copper and tin alone. Antique coins frequently occur, made by forgers in the different reigns, in imitation of the silver currency, which contain a very large proportion of tin. There are coins of Nero which are of a most debased and brittle brass.

According to Aristotle, the tin mines of Cornwall were known and worked in his time. Diodorus Siculus, who wrote about forty years before the Christian era, gives an account of working these mines: he says, that their produce was conveyed to Gaul, and thence to different parts of Italy. The miners of Cornwall were so celebrated for their knowledge of working metals, that, about the middle of the seventeenth century, the renowned Becher, a physician of Spire, and tutor of Stahl, came over to this country on purpose to visit them; and it is reported of him, that, when he had seen them, he exclaimed, He who was a _teacher_ at home, was a _learner_ when he came there. About 3,000 tons of tin are furnished annually in Cornwall, two-fifths of which are usually exported to India by the East India Company. There are two kinds of tin known in commerce, namely, _block_ tin, and _grain_ tin. Block tin is procured from the common tin ore, and usually cast in blocks of about 320 pounds weight. It is taken to the proper offices to be assayed, where it receives the impression of a lion rampant, being the arms of the Duke of Cornwall, pays a duty of four shillings per hundred weight to the Duke, and then becomes legally salable. Grain tin is found in small particles, in what is called the _stream tin ore_. It appears to have been washed from its original bed in remote ages. This kind of tin owes its superiority, not only to the purity of the ore, but to the care with which it is washed and refined.

_Lead_ is of a blueish white color, scarcely sonorous, unelastic, and, being the softest of all metals, yields readily to the hammer. It generally contains a small quantity of silver. An alloy of this metal with tin forms pewter, and in different proportions soft solder. Its specific gravity is 11.35. Lead ore is very abundant in Scotland, the western parts of Northumberland and Durham, Derbyshire, and many other parts of the world. The lead found in these counties occurs on the estates of Colonel Beaumont, and of those of the late Lord Derwentwater: the last of these were forfeited to Government; and are now in the possession of Greenwich Hospital. Lead was known in the time of Moses, and was in common use among the ancients. The Romans sheathed the bottoms of their ships with it, fastened by nails made with bronze. During the first century, at Rome, it was twenty-four times the price it is now in Europe; whereas tin was only eight times its present price.

_Nickel_ is white, ductile and malleable, but of difficult fusion. It is attracted by the magnet, and has itself the property of attracting iron: but as the nickel of commerce always contains iron, this may disguise its properties, and prevent its nature being exactly known, Richter, in his Annales de Chimie, asserts, that this metal, in its pure state, is nearly as brilliant as silver, and more attractable by the loadstone than iron; that it is not liable to be altered by the atmosphere; and that its specific gravity when forged is 8.666. The ore of nickel is procured from various parts of Germany, and is often found with cobalt. It is chiefly used in China; and it is said, that the manufacturers of Birmingham combine it with iron, and melt it with brass, with great advantage.

_Zinc_ possesses but a small degree of malleability and ductility, except under certain circumstances. When broken, it appears of a shining blueish white; and when exposed to the air, becomes covered with a pellicle which reflects various colors. If beaten out into thin leaves, it will take fire from the flame of a common taper. Its filings are mixed with gunpowder, to produce those brilliant stars and spangles which are seen in the best artificial fire-works. It is also one of the metals employed to form Galvanic batteries. It is the most combustible metal we have. It will decompose water without the assistance of heat. Next to manganese, it has the strongest affinity for oxygen of all the metals. Its specific gravity is 6.861. Its nature is such, that it seems to form the link between brittle and malleable metals. Some mineralogists consider zinc to be the most abundant metal in nature, excepting iron. Calamine, or lapis calaminaris, which is a native oxide of zinc, combined with carbonic acid, is found both in masses and in a crystallized state, and is generally combined with a large portion of silex. Zinc is also found in an ore called _blend_, in which state it is mineralized by sulphur. The miners call it Black Jack--a mineral employed till lately in Wales for mending the roads. Zinc is generally called by our artists _spelter_; and in England and elsewhere it is extracted from calamine, and other ores, by distillation. This metal abounds in China, where it is used for current coin, and for that purpose is employed in the utmost purity. These coins have frequently Tartar characters on one side, and Chinese on the other. They have generally a square hole in the centre, that they may be carried on strings, and more readily counted.

_Antimony_ is of a dusky white color, brilliant, brittle, and destitute of ductility. Though seemingly hard, it may be cut with a knife. Its specific gravity, according to Bergman, is 6.86. It is procured from an ore which is found chiefly in Hungary and Norway. Native antimony, alloyed with a small portion of silver and iron, has been found in Sweden. And it is said, that it has been found in the state of Connecticut, in America, nearly in a pure metallic form. There are five distinct ores of antimony, but the grey is the only one found in sufficient quantity for the manufacturer; it is a sulphuret of antimony. Perhaps we have no metal more valuable as a medicine than this, or one which is applied in such various ways.

_Bismuth_ is of a yellowish white color, lamellated texture, and moderately hard, but not malleable. It is so brittle that it breaks readily under the hammer, and may be reduced to powder. It has the singular property of _expanding_ as it cools. Hence, probably, its use in the metallic composition for printers’ types; as from this expansive property are obtained the most perfect impressions of the moulds in which the letters are cast. In manufactories this metal is known to the workmen by the name of _tin glass_. It is one of the metals which will inflame when suspended in oxymuriatic acid gas. It is generally found with cobalt in the cobaltic ores of Saxony and England. Native bismuth, and sulphuret of bismuth, are found on the continent; and a sulphuret of bismuth has been discovered in Cornwall; but this is not an abundant metal. If 8 parts of bismuth, 5 of lead, and 3 of tin, be melted together, the mixed metal will fuse at a heat no greater than 212°. Tea-spoons made of this alloy are sold in London, to surprise those who are unacquainted with their nature. They have the appearance of common tea-spoons, but melt as soon as they are put into hot tea.

_Arsenic_, when reduced to its pure metallic state, is a friable brilliant metal, of a blueish white color, easily tarnishing, or oxidizing, by exposure to the air. In all its states it is extremely poisonous. It may be known by the smell of garlic, and by the white fumes which it exhales when thrown upon a piece of red-hot coal. Its specific gravity is 8.310. It is found in Bohemia, Hungary, Saxony, and other places on the continent; and in combination with acids, sulphur, or oxygen. The arsenic of commerce is prepared in Saxony, in the operation of roasting the cobalt ores for the manufacture of zaffre. The reverberatory furnace in which the ores are roasted terminates in a long horizontal chimney; and in this chimney the arsenical vapors are condensed, forming a crust, which at stated times is cleared off by criminals, who are condemned to this work.

_Cobalt_ is a whitish-grey, brittle metal, nearly resembling fine hardened steel; is difficult of fusion, but obedient to the magnet. According to Bergman, its specific gravity is about 7.700; though Tassaret makes it 8.538. Formerly all our cobalt came from Saxony. The cobalt ores of Hesse produce a nett profit of £14,000 a year, as stated in Born’s Travels; though once they were used for no other purpose than to repair the roads. But now cobalt is found abundantly in the Mendip hills in Somersetshire, and in a mine near Penzance in Cornwall. Zaffre is now made from the cobalt ores found in these hills. Had it not been for the rapid promulgation of chemical science in these kingdoms, this important metal might have lain in the bowels of the earth undiscovered for ages yet to come. Formerly miners not only threw cobalt aside as useless, but they considered it so troublesome when they found it among other ores, that, as stated in Beckmann’s History of Inventions, a prayer was used in the German church, that God would preserve miners from _cobalt_ and from _spirits_. It is now very valuable to the manufacturers of porcelain.

_Manganese_ is of a dark grey color, brilliant, very brittle, of considerable hardness, and difficult fusibility. Its specific gravity has been estimated by Bergman at 6.850, and by Hielm 7.00. It is never found native. It was first procured in its pure metallic form by Kaim and Gahn between 1770 and 1775. It abounds in America, and in various parts of the continent. The manganese which is used in England, is obtained in a state of black oxide from Somersetshire and Devon. It is found either in the state of an oxide or a salt. But the discovery of mines of it in this country is a new acquisition, owing to the spirit of chemical research. Dr. William Dyce, of Aberdeen, has lately communicated to the Society for the Promotion of Arts, &c, the discovery of a mine of great extent, and very fine quality, in the vicinity of that town: for which the gold medal of the Society was sent him. Professor Beattie, of the same place, has also discovered manganese in his neighborhood, on the river Don, of good quality. Scheele discovered this metal in the ashes of burnt vegetables. Proust has lately announced the discovery of a native sulphuret of manganese. That from the Bristol and the Mendip hills generally contains lead.

_Tungsten_ is a heavy metal, but its properties are not much known. It is procured from a mineral found in Sweden, and from an ore called _wolfram_, found in Cornwall, Germany, &c. It has been used in France for making vegetable lakes; but is not used here. Though it has been recommended as a proper basis for colors, it shows in some instances a strange fugacious disposition. Its specific gravity is 17.60.

The same may be said of the other metals, their properties not being much known. _Molybdenum_ was first procured in a metallic state by Hielm, in the year 1782; and, it is believed, has been employed in some processes of dyeing in Germany. As the ore may be had in great plenty, it will probably, some time hence, come into general use here. At present it is not used in any of the arts. Its specific gravity is 8.61. _Uranium_ was discovered by Klaproth in 1789, in a mineral called pechblend; and has since been found combined with carbonic acid, in the common green mica. _Titanium_ was first noticed in the year 1781, by Mr. Macgregor, in a greyish black sand, found in the vale of Menachan in Cornwall; but has since been discovered by Klaproth in several other minerals. An ore of it occurs in Transylvania, which very much resembles yellow sand. This metal has been used in France for painting porcelain. _Tellurium_ was discovered by Klaproth in the year 1798, in a particular kind of gold ore. It has hitherto been found in quantities too small to allow of its being employed in the arts. Its specific gravity is only 6.115. _Chromium_ received its name from a property it has of imparting a lively color to a variety of other bodies. The emerald is colored by an oxide of this metal. _Columbium_ was discovered in a mineral sent from Massachusetts in North America. _Tantalium_ was found in an ore from Swedish Lapland: but Dr. Woollaston has lately discovered that this and columbium are identically the same metal. _Cerium_ had not been seen in a metallic form till Sir Humphrey Davy procured it from some oxide discovered by Hissinger and Berzelius in 1804. Its scarcity will prevent its being applied to any useful purpose.

The metals are simple substances, distinguishable from all other bodies by their lustre, great specific gravity, perfect opacity, and superior power of conducting electricity. They are the great agents by which we are enabled to explore the bowels of the earth, and examine the recesses of nature. Their uses are so multiplied, that they are become of prime importance in every occupation of life.

The reason why one metal possesses such opposite and specific differences from those of another, is not to be attributed to chance, but must certainly be the effect of consummate wisdom and contrivance. These metals differ so much from each other in their degrees of hardness, lustre, color, elasticity, fusibility, weight, malleability, ductility, and tenacity, that the Author of nature appears to have had in view all the necessities of man coming within the range of their operation.[112]

[It is now generally admitted that there are FORTY _distinct metals_.

Some of these metals are the _bases_ of the _alkalis_, _alkaline earths_, and _earths_. And as _this_ class of metals is but little known to the great mass of readers, some remarks will be acceptable: they are recommended to his special attention, as they form the base of the only satisfactory theory of _volcanos_ and _earthquakes_. The number of metals in this class are _twelve_.

1. The bases of the three alkalis, _potash_, _soda_, and _lithia_.

The base of _potash_ is POTASIUM. This metal was discovered in 1807 by Sir H. Davy. Its texture is crystalline; color and lustre similar to mercury. It is solid at the ordinary temperature of the atmosphere; somewhat fluid at 70°, melts at 150°. Its affinity for oxygen is so great that it oxidizes rapidly in the air; and decomposes water instantly upon contact, emitting heat, flame, and light, as it swims on the surface of the water, being the _lighter_ substance. In these cases it oxidizes and becomes potash, by abstracting oxygen from the air and water.

The base of _soda_ is SODIUM. This metal was discovered by the same chemist the same year. It has the strong metallic lustre of silver. It fuses at 200°, and evaporates at a full red heat. It decomposes both air and water, but not so rapidly as potasium. When thrown on water it effervesces strongly; and inflames with light, when thrown on boiling water. In these cases soda results, which is the _oxide of sodium. This metal is the base of common salt._

The base of _lithia_ is LITHIUM. This metal was discovered in Sweden in 1818, by Arfwedson. It is of a white color, like sodium; but oxidizes so rapidly as not to be kept in its pure metallic state. Its peculiar properties are, therefore, not so certainly known. Its alkaline quality is well ascertained, when in combination with oxygen, in which form it commonly appears.

2. The bases of the four alkaline earths, _baryta_, _strontia_, _lime_ and _magnesia_.

The base of _baryta_ is BARIUM. This metal was discovered by Sir H. Davy, in 1808. It is of a dark gray color, very heavy, and attracts oxygen very strongly from the air, and from water, with effervescence, caused by the escape of hydrogen gas, and thus becomes an oxide which is the pure earth baryta, of a white color, and very heavy. Its intimate properties are not yet well known.

The base of _strontia_, is STRONTIUM. This metal is very much like barium, in color, weight, and power of decomposing air and water, and thus becoming an oxide, which is the earth strontia. Yet it is satisfactorily distinguished from barium.

The base of _lime_ is CALCIUM. This metal was satisfactorily obtained first by Sir H. Davy. It is of a whiter color than the two last mentioned metals; and like them decomposes the air and water, and thus becomes lime, which is an _oxide of calcium_. The _base_ of common _limestone is_, of course, _a metal_.

The base of _magnesia_ is MAGNESIUM. This metal was discovered by Sir H. Davy, but in very small quantities; sufficient, however, to determine its strong affinity for oxygen, so as to decompose water, and thus oxidize, and become the earth magnesia, which is a metallic oxide. The base of common magnesia is, of course, a metal.

3. The bases of the five earths, _alumina_, _glucina_, _yttria_, _zirconia_, and _silica_.

The base of _alumina_ is ALUMINIUM. The existence of this metal was pretty satisfactorily ascertained by Sir H. Davy, and subsequently _established_ by Wöhler. It is very difficult to obtain it, as the preparation is attended with intense heat and light. When obtained it is generally in small scales of a metallic lustre. It requires a great heat to fuse it; and when heated to redness in the open air, it burns with a bright light, and the product is an _oxide of aluminium_, which is _pure clay_, of a white color, and quite hard.

This oxide, or pure clay, is very abundant in the composition of the earth, though generally very much adulterated. It is found in all countries and used for making bricks, porcelain ware, pipes, &c. When pure it sometimes crystallizes. Hence it is capable of forming some of the most beautiful _gems_: as the sapphire and ruby, which are pure crystallized clay. _Clay, then, has a metallic base._

The base of _glucina_, is GLUCINIUM. Glucina was first discovered by Vauquelin in 1798, and by analogy its base was _supposed_ to be metallic, which has since been confirmed by Dr. Wöhler, who has obtained the base in the form of a metal. _An. de ch. et de ph. Sept. 1828, as quoted by Dr. Bache, Turner’s Chem. p. 303._

The base of _yttria_ is YTTRIUM. This metal was obtained in a separate state by Dr. Wöhler, (See last quoted authority,) though its existence was inferred by Godolin who discovered the earth which is an oxide of this metal.

The base of _zirconia_ is ZIRCONIUM. The earth was discovered by Klaproth in 1789, and its metallic base clearly established by Berzelius 1824.

The base of _silica_ is SILICIUM. There exists some doubts among chemists whether this base is indeed a _metal_; but there is no doubt but that it is _combustible_, and that the earth silica, (or silex,) is an _oxide_. From _analogy_ it would be inferred this base is metallic, and the _evidence_ preponderates on this side. This oxide, or earth, is very abundant. It is more commonly called _silex_. It is the base of the whole class of primitive rocks, and almost altogether constitutes quartz, flint, &c.

The reader is now desired to recollect that this class of metals constitutes the _bases of the alkalis, and earths_; which are simply _metallic oxides_ or a combination of oxygen with the metals. Recollect also that _all these metals are inflammable_, and some of them simply upon exposure to air and water. Now as the earths at the surface of our globe are the results of _chemical action_, in which the oxygen combined with the metals, it is beyond a doubt that these substances were created in their elementary and uncombined state; and that the act of combining would produce an inconceivable amount of heat, so as to fuse completely the whole mass of our earth; and in this state of fusion the oxides would commence forming at the _surface chiefly_; and thus by oxidizing the metals would form the earths, rocks, &c, which constitute, principally, the _crust_ of our globe. When this crust became sufficiently thick it would protect the _interior_ parts of the earth from oxidation, by preventing the access of air and water; and they would of course remain in a pure metallic state. But, (as is most probable,) if the materials, being promiscuously mixed throughout the mass at the commencement of the chemical action, should oxidize throughout, then the indurating of the crust, by cooling, would inclose the _interior_ parts _in a state of fusion_, and in that state they remain to the present time. Nor is this astonishing when we recollect the _earths_ are almost perfect _non-conductors of caloric_: of course it could not escape at all through the _crust_ of the earth, formed of many strata of earths, in the shape of rocks, which, taken together, may be about eight miles thick.

If, by any concussion, or by percolation, water, or air should reach these metals in the interior, or these fused masses of matter, the consequence would be _decomposition_, and the production of a great amount of gas, and heat, which operating conjointly, first produce earthquakes by struggling to escape from the caverns in which they are generated; and when they find a passage, they would break forth into volcanos. This is the only true and satisfactory theory of earthquakes and volcanos.

It may be added, that this action would naturally bring to its aid the astonishing powers of electricity and galvanism.

The _forty_ metals mentioned above, may be classed scientifically into _two_ classes.

1. _The bases of the alkalis, alkaline earths, and earths._ These are twelve: potasium, sodium, and lithium; bases of the alkalis--barium, strontium, calcium, and magnesia; bases of the alkaline earths--aluminium, glucinium, yttrium, zirconium, and silicium; bases of the earths.

2. Metals, the oxides of which are neither alkalis, or earths. These are _twenty-eight_ in number, and may be set down in the following order: gold, silver, iron, copper, mercury, lead, tin, antimony, zinc, bismuth, arsenic, cobalt, platinum, nickel, manganese, tungsten, tellurium, molybdenum, uranium, titanium, chromium, columbium, palladium, rhodium, iridium, osmium, cereum, and cadmium.

Not only the _first_ class of metals are _combustible_, but the _last_ also. _All_ the metals are now well known to be combustible bodies, _and may be made to burn as really as wood_.]

_Gems_ are of a higher order than metals, of a more refined nature, and consist of two classes, the pellucid and semi-pellucid. Those of the first class are bright, elegant, and beautiful fossils, naturally and essentially compound, ever found in small detached masses, extremely hard, and of great lustre. Those composing the second class are stones naturally and essentially compound, not inflammable nor soluble in water, found in detached masses, and composed of crystalline matter debased by earth: however, they are but slightly debased, are of great beauty and brightness, of a moderate degree of transparency, and usually found in small masses.

The knowledge of the gems depends principally on observing their hardness and color. Their _hardness_ is commonly allowed to stand in the following order: the diamond, ruby, sapphire, jacinth, emerald, amethyst, garnet, carneol, chalcedony, onyx, jasper, agate, porphyry, and marble. This difference, however, is not regular and constant, but frequently varies. In point of _color_, the diamond is valued for its transparency, the ruby for its deep red, the sapphire for its blue, the emerald for its green, the jacinth for its orange, the amethyst for its purple, the carneol for its carnation, the onyx for its tawny, the jasper, agate, and porphyry, for their vermillion, green, and variegated colors, and the garnet for its transparent blood-red.

There is not a unity of opinion concerning the cause of this difference. “Their colors,” says Cronstedt, “are commonly supposed to depend upon metallic vapors; but may they not more justly be supposed to arise from a phlogiston united with a metallic or some other earth? because we find that metallic earths which are perfectly well calcined give no color to any glass; and that the manganese, on the other hand, gives more color than can be ascribed to the small quantity of metal which is to be extracted from it.” M. Magellan is of opinion, that their color is owing chiefly to the mixture of iron which enters their composition; but approves the sentiment of Cronstedt, that phlogiston has a share in their production, it being well known that the calces of iron when dephlogisticated, produce the red and yellow colors of marble, and when phlogisticated to a certain degree produce the blue or green colors.

With regard to the texture of gems, M. Magellan observes, that all of them are foliated or laminated, and of various degrees of hardness. Whenever the edges of these laminæ are sensible to the eye, they have a fibrous appearance, and reflect various shades of color, which change successively according to their angular position to the eye. These are called by the French _chatorantes_; and what is a blemish in their transparency, often enhances their value on account of their scarcity. But when the substance of a gem is composed of a broken texture, consisting of various sets of laminæ differently inclined to each other, it emits at the same time various irradiations of different colors, which succeed one another according to their angle of position. This kind of gems has obtained the name of _opals_, which are valued in proportion to the brilliancy, beauty, and variety of their colors. Their crystallization, no doubt, depends on the same cause which produces that of salts, earths, and metals: but as to the particular configuration of each species of gems, we can hardly depend upon any individual form as a criterion to ascertain each kind; and when we have attended with the utmost care to all that has been written on the subject, we are at last obliged to appeal to chemical analysis, because it very often assumes various forms.[113]

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The rich treasures of the earth are within it, observes a worthy author, so that they cannot be discovered and brought to the surface without the labor of man; yet they are not placed so deep, as to render his exertion ineffectual. Thus nothing but what is comparatively worthless is to be found by the indolent on the surface of life. Every thing valuable must be obtained by diligent research and sedulous effort. All wisdom, science, art and experience, are hidden at a proper depth for the exercise of intellect, and they who bend their attention to any of these objects shall not be disappointed in their pursuit.

The treasures of wisdom, which are displayed in the redemption of mankind by Jesus Christ, and recorded in the Divine Oracles, do not lie upon the surface of the letter, for every superficial reader to observe them: therefore our Lord says, “Search the Scriptures.” The word ερευνατε, compounded of ερεω, _I seek_, and ευνη, _a bed_, is, says St. Chrysostom, “a metaphor taken from those who dig deep and search for metals in the bowels of the earth. They look for the bed where the metal lies, and break every clod, and sift and examine the whole, in order to discover the ore.” In Leigh’s Critica Sacra, we meet with these observations, illustrative of the Greek word--“_Search_; that is, shake and sift them, as the word signifies: search narrowly, till the true force and meaning of every sentence, yea, of every word and syllable, nay, of every letter and yod therein, be known and understood. Confer place with place; the scope of one place with that of another; things going before with things coming after: compare word with word, letter with letter, and search it thoroughly.”

The Holy Scriptures contain the most invaluable treasures, a complete collection of doctrines, precepts, and promises, necessary to everlasting happiness. In this respect they have a peculiar advantage above all the writings of the most distinguished philosophers in the heathen world. The Bible presents an exact model of religion, for the instruction and common benefit of mankind. Here we have, in a narrow compass, all the things necessary to be known, believed, and practised, in order to our salvation; for it is, “a lamp to our feet, and a light to our path.” We are taught the knowledge of the only living and true God, his spiritual nature, adorable perfections, and endearing relations to his rational creatures: so that the meanest Christian who can read, may arrive at more true and just notions of him, than the wisest heathen sages could attain, who as the Apostle intimates, did only grope after him in the dark.--We are informed how Adam was created, how he fell, and what is the consequence of his transgression to all his posterity: the most celebrated heathens were not able to account for the origin of moral evil, as affecting the human race. The glorious plan of redemption by Jesus Christ is set before us, in its commencement, progress, and completion; which is the highest display of the moral perfections of God, and attended with the most beneficial advantages to man.--The rules of duty, all the agenda of religion, or things to be done, are plainly stated, and properly enforced. Promises, containing pardon, adoption, sanctification, and eternal life, are every where interspersed, and are “yea, and amen, in Christ.”

Our obligation to search the Scriptures, and by that means acquaint ourselves with their valuable contents, appears from the _necessity_ and _design_ of committing them to writing. St. Paul says, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” But how can they contribute to these important ends without being read? What effect could the mere writing of them have on mankind, to inform the judgment and regulate the life? How could Christian motives have proper influence, if the Sacred Volume were neglected? Is it not an insult to common sense, to assert that the Scriptures were written for our instruction and admonition, but it is not necessary to peruse them to learn what they teach? To have a Bible, and not to read it, for direction in the way of truth and holiness, would not be attended with any peculiar advantage. Precious metals, deposited in the earth, must be procured to be rendered beneficial. The Holy Scriptures contain the revelation of God to mankind, declare his will with certainty, and are the prescribed means of salvation: the Apostle says, “they are able to make us wise unto salvation, through faith that is in Christ Jesus.”

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Footnotes - Chapter IV

[74] Benson on Gen. i, 9, 10.

[75] Contemplative Philosopher, vol. ii, pp. 177-179.

[76] M. Savary, in his instructive and entertaining Letters on Greece, has the following pertinent reflections: “We enjoy the finest weather imaginable; not a cloud obscures the sky, and a south-east wind wafts us directly towards the port to which our wishes tend. We have now entirely lost sight of land, and, as far as the eye can reach, only view the immense abyss of the waters, and the vast expanse of the heavens. How awful is this sight! How does it inspire the mind with great ideas! How adventurous is man, who trusts his fortune and his life to this frail vessel he has built, which a worm may pierce, or a single blast dash to pieces against a rock. Yet in this he braves the fury of the ocean! But how admirable is his ingenuity! He commands the winds, enchains them in the canvas, and forces them to conduct him where he pleases. He sails from one end of the world to the other, and traverses the immense liquid plains without any signals to direct him. He reads his course in the heavens. A needle, which wonderfully points perpetually to the pole, and the observation of the stars, inform him where he is. A few lines and points mark out to him the islands, coasts, and shoals, which his skill enables him to approach or avoid at pleasure. Yet has he cause to tremble, notwithstanding all his science and all his genius! The fire of the clouds is kindling over his head, and may consume his dwelling. Unfathomable gulfs are yawning beneath his feet, and he is separated from them only by a single plank. His confidence might make us imagine he knew himself immortal; yet he must die--die never to revive again, except in another state of being.”

[77] As it is sometimes necessary to preserve sea water in casks for bathing and other purposes, it is of importance to know how to keep it from putrefaction. Dr. Henry from many experiments made by him for the preservation of sea water from putrefaction, has concluded, that two scruples of quick-lime are sufficient to preserve a quart of sea water. The proportions, however, may vary a little according to the strength of quick-lime employed.

[78] “Frosts often occasion a scantiness of water in our fountains and wells. This is sometimes erroneously accounted for by supposing that the water freezes in the bowels of the earth. But this, as Dr. Robison remarks, is a great mistake: the most intense cold of a Siberian winter would not freeze the ground two feet deep; but a very moderate frost will consolidate the whole surface of a country, and make it impervious to the air; especially if the frost have been preceded by rain, which has soaked the surface. When this happens, the water which was flittering through the ground is all arrested, and kept suspended in its capillary tubes by the pressure of the air.” Haüy’s Nat. Phil. p. 198.

[79] Dr. Black’s Lectures, vol. i. p. 69.

[80] See Ellis’s voyage to Hudson’s Bay.

[81] St. Pierre’s Studies, vol. i, pp. 129-132.

[82] See 21st volume of the Philosophical Magazine.

[83] The specific gravity of water is as follows; a wine-pint measure weighs one pound; consequently a cubic foot of water weighs about 1,000 ounces, or 62½ pounds, avoirdupois. It is 816 times heavier than atmospheric air.

[84] Parkes’s Chemical Catechism, p. 108.

[85] Haüy’s Natural Philosophy, vol. i. pp. 197, 198.

[86] Parkes’s Chemical Catechism, pp. 94, 95.

[87] Parkes’s Chemical Catechism, p. 92.

[88] Driessen on the Nature of Snow.

[89] Thomson’s Chemistry, vol. i, p. 365.

[90] “The English word _hail_, in Latin _grando_, in Greek χαλαζα, gives us no information about the nature of the thing: but, if we take the word ברד BeReD in Hebrew, it resolves itself into ב..רד, which signifies _in descensu_, and so describes to us the physiological formation of hail: which, as philosophers agree, is first formed into drops of rain, and, _as it falls_, is frozen into hail.” Jones’s Letter on the Use of the Hebrew Language.

[91] Dr. Clarke on Exod. ix, 18.

[92] See Dr. Paley’s Natural Theology, p. 407.

[93] There are hot spouting springs of water in Iceland, of which a traveller says, “Near Laugervatan, a small lake about two days’ journey distant from Mount Hecla, we beheld the steam of the hot springs rising in eight different places, one of which of which continually threw up into the air a column of water from eighteen to twenty-four feet high. The water was extremely hot, so that a piece of mutton and some salmon trouts were almost boiled to pieces in it in six minutes.

At Gyser, not far from Skallholt, one of the Episcopal sees in Iceland, within the circumference of three English miles, forty or fifty boiling springs are seen together; and the largest, which is in the middle, particularly engaged our attention the whole of the day that we spent here. The aperture through which the water arose is nineteen feet in diameter; and round the top is a basin nine feet higher than the conduit. Here the water does not continually, but only by intervals several times a day; and, as I was informed by the Icelanders, in wet weather higher then at other times.

On the day we were there the water spouted ten different times, between the hours of six and eleven in the morning, each time the height of fifty or sixty feet. Before, the water had not risen above the margin of the pipe; but now it began by degrees to fill the upper basin, and at last to run over. Our guides told us that the water would soon spout up much higher than it had done.

Soon after four o’clock we observed that the earth began to tremble in three different places; as well as the top of a mountain which was about three hundred fathoms distant from the mouth of the spring. We also frequently heard a subterraneous noise, like the discharge of a cannon; and immediately afterwards a column of water spouted from the opening, which at a great height divided itself into several rays, and according to our observation was ninety-two feet high. Our great surprise at this uncommon force of the air and fire was increased, when many stones which we had flung into the aperture wore thrown up again with the spouting water.” _Troil._

[94] Savary, Newcomen, Cawley, Watt, and Boulton, Englishmen; and Betancourt and the brothers Perrier, Frenchmen; are names well known in the history of steam-engines. And those persons who wish to acquaint themselves with the principles and manner of operation of this most important class of machines, says Dr. O. Gregory, may be referred to the following work:--The Repertory of Arts and Manufactures, the Philosophical Journal, and the Philosophical Magazine, in various places; the second volume of Mr. Brewster’s edition of Ferguson’s Select Lectures, the second volume of Gregory’s Mechanics, and the second volume of Prony’s treatise entitled Nouvelle Architecture Hydraulique.

[95] Plymouth Chronicle.

[96] Whitehurst’s Inquiry into the Original State and Formation of the Earth.

[97] Examination of Dr. Burnet’s Theory of the Earth, pp. 92, 93.

[98] The substances of which vegetables are composed, now amount to fifteen in number; but almost the whole of vegetable substances are composed of four ingredients, namely, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and azote. Of these, the last, namely, azote, forms but a small proportion even of those vegetable substances of which it is a constituent part, while, into many, it does not enter at all.--Contemplative Philosopher, vol. i. p. 150.

[99] Of the efficacy of water in vegetation, we have on record some remarkable instances. That vegetables will grow in woollen cloth, moss, and in other insoluble media, besides soils provided they be supplied with water, has been repeatedly shown since the days of Van Helmont and Boyle: but the experiments of a modern author, says Mr. Parkes, from their apparent correctness, seem more highly interesting and conclusive.

Seeds of plants were sown in pure river-sand, in litharge, in flowers of sulphur, and even among metal, or common leaden shot; and in every instance nothing employed for their nourishment but distilled water. The plants throve, and passed through all the usual gradations of growth to perfect maturity. The author then proceeded to gather the entire produce, the roots, stems, leaves, pods, seeds, &c. These were accurately weighed, dried, and again weighed, then submitted to distillation, incineration, lixivation, and the other ordinary means used in a careful analysis. Thus he obtained from these vegetables all the materials peculiar to each individual species, precisely as if it had been cultivated in a natural soil--viz. the various earths, the alkalies, acids, metals, carbon, sulphur, phosphorus, nitrogen, &c. He concludes this very important paper nearly in these extraordinary words: “Oxygen and hydrogen, with the assistance of solar light, appear to be the only elementary substances employed in the constitution of the whole universe; and Nature, in her simple progress works the most infinitely diversified effects by the slightest modifications in the means she employs.”--See Recherches sur la Force assimilatrice dans les Végétaux, par M. Henri Braconnot, Annales de Chimie, Fev. et Mars, 1808.

[100] He was born at Verona, of an illustrious family; and at the foot of Vesuvius, while attempting to ascertain the cause of an extraordinary cloud issuing therefrom, was, by the sulphureous exhalation from the burning lava, suffocated, A.D. 79.

[101] The _Tabacum_, or common Tobacco plant, was first discovered in America, by the Spaniards, about the year 1560, and by them imported into Europe. It had been used by the inhabitants of America long before; and was called by the inhabitants of the islands, _yoli_, and by those of the continent, _pætux_. It was sent into Spain from Tabaco, a province of Yucatan, where it was first discovered, and from whence it takes its common name. Sir Walter Raleigh is generally said to have been the first who introduced it into England, about the year 1585, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and who taught his countrymen how to smoke it. The following anecdote is related of him. He having imitated the Indians in smoking this plant, at length so much delighted in it, that he was unwilling to disuse it on his return to England; and therefore supplied himself with several hogsheads, which he placed in his own study, and generally indulged himself with smoking secretly two or three pipes a day. He had a simple man, who waited at his study door, to bring him up daily a tankard of old ale and nutmeg, and he always laid aside his pipe when he heard him approaching. One day, being earnestly engaged in reading some book which amused him, the man abruptly entered, and, surprised at seeing his master enveloped in smoke, (a sight perfectly new to him) the smoke ascending in thick vapors from his mouth and the bowl of the tobacco-pipe, immediately threw the ale in his master’s face, ran down stairs, and alarmed the family with repeated exclamations, that his master was on fire in the inside, and that if they did not make haste, before they could get up stairs, he would be burned to ashes.

[102] Taylor on remarkable Trees, Plants, and Shrubs.

[103] Evangelical Magazine, January, 1814.

[104] Dr. Black, ii. 694.

[105] Phil. Trans. for 1796.

[106] See Mr. Hitchen’s Paper, in Phil. Trans. vol. xci. p. 159.

[107] Storch’s Picture of Petersburgh, p. 330.

[108] Several salts are formed by art with this metal for medicinal purposes. One of the most valuable is _calomel_, which is made by triturating fluid mercury with corrosive sublimate, and then submitting the mixture to sublimation. As this medicine is much used in private families, and as dreadful consequences might ensue if it were improperly prepared, it ought to be generally known, says Mr. Parkes, that if it be not perfectly insipid to the taste, and indissoluble by long boiling in water, it contains a portion of oxymuriate of mercury, or corrosive sublimate, and consequently is poisonous.

[109] Monthly Review, Appendix, vol. xxvii. N.S. p. 551.

[110] Storch’s Picture of Petersburgh, p. 319.

[111] In domestic economy, the necessity of keeping copper vessels always clean is generally acknowledged; but it may not perhaps be so well known, that fat and oily substances, and vegetable acids, do not attack copper while _hot_; and, therefore, if no liquor be ever suffered to grow _cold_ in these utensils, they may be used for every culinary purpose with perfect safety.--Dr. Percival gives an account of a young lady who amused herself, while her hair was dressing, with eating samphire pickle impregnated with copper. She soon complained of pain in the stomach, and in five days vomiting commenced, which was incessant for two days. After this her stomach became prodigiously distended: and in nine days after eating the pickle, death relieved her from her sufferings. Medical Transactions, vol. iii, p. 80.

[112] The materials forming nearly the whole of this Section have been selected and arranged from the _seventh_ Edition of Parkes’s _Chemical Catechism_: a work of peculiar interest, and which was confidently recommended to the Author by a physician and chemist of distinguished celebrity.

[113] See Encyclopædia Britannica.

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