the fea? In vain would it call upon the heavens to distil a neceflary humidity. Those floating watering pots, the clouds, would foon be exhausted if not supplied from this great reservoir. It is true, it is God that calleth for the waters of the fea, and poureth them forth upon the face of the earth. Under the direction of his providence and according to the laws of nature, the funbeams attract, and the ocean readily yields from its ftores the watery exhalations are rarefied into innumerable fine bubbles, specifically lighter than the air, and by this means they naturally afcend with eafe, leaving their falts behind them. The clouds are formed, wafted abroad, diftilled gently in infenfible dews, or poured forth in plentiful fhowers. Thus also fountains are formed, break forth into streams, and are swelled into rivers, till at length they fall into the ocean again, and make a grateful return of benefits received.-May this be an emblem of myfelf, and all around me! O thou uncreated ocean of all being and blessedness, it is from thy overflowing fulness, that I receive all my fupplies! I am protected, cloathed, and fed from thy free and rich bounty: within thy all-circling arms I live and move: constantly art thou giving forth and I am receiving: may, I learn from the ftream of every brook I pass by, to turn my thoughts, to direct my motions towards thee, and carry my tribute of homage thither, whence I derive my all! May I practise benevolence to all around me: let my waters refresh the weary; fupport the fainting; heal the wounded; and give a verdure and fruitfulnefs to the barren foul! let me, like the flowing brook, take a tranfient gentle falute of the flowry banks as I pafs; but never, oh never let this foul, which thou haft created for thyself, O Father of Spirits, think itself at reft, till it finds itself in thy bofom "Still preffing to my wifh'd abode, Nor fix'd, til at my centre-God." It is very remarkable, that this immense world of falt water, which is not only naufeous beyond expreffion to the human tafte, but void of the power of refreshing our thirft, fhould be the grand cistern, and fource of all the fresh and enlivening ftreams, which flow through the earth. It is much to be queftioned, (after all the efforts of human art, and all the declarations which have been made) whether the united. endeavours of mankind could produce a cup of water, perfectly fweet from the falt ftreams of the ocean. Yet what inexhauftible quantities. are daily drawn from thence, wholly fweetened. and perfectly refined from every disagreeable and brackish tafte, by the action of the folar heat, and delivered to the fafe conveyance of the clouds; clouds; which adminifter them, in wife proportion to the supply of every want; which distil them in dews, or fertilizing rains; enriching the rills, and enlarging the overflowing ftreams; giving life and verdure to the earth; and affording all thofe innumerable commodities, which mankind enjoys from that liquid element: of which the famous Pindar faid fo long fince açıτον μεν ύδωρ Sov μev udwę "Nothing is comparable to "How amiable is the goodness, and how amazing the power of the world's adorable Maker! How amiable his goodness in distributing fo largely, what is fo abfolutely neceffary, and fo extensively beneficial! That water, without which we can scarce perform any bufinefs, or enjoy any comfort, fhould be every one's property; fhould ftream by our houfes; fhould fart up from the foil; fhould drop down from the clouds; should take a journey from the ends of the earth, and the extremities of the ocean on purpose to serve us !-How amazing his powerThat this boundless mafs of fluid falt, fo intolerably naufeous to the human tafte, fhould be the original fpring, which deals out every palatable draught to mankind, and quenches the thirst of every animal! which supplies the country with its fertility, and the parterre with its beauty! Doubtlefs the power, by whom this is effected, can extract comfort from our afflic tions, advantage from our calamities, and make all things work together for our good." But fee from every clime, and from every land, the rivers are all haftening in the fame course, and with perpetual lapse rolling their filver currents to the main. If from thence they receive, thither they return their waters: All flow into the ocean; and there is a reciprocation of favours:a fpeculation, which indeed might be carried through nature, in which, properly speaking, nothing perishes, but by a conftant rotation all things are circulating, and mutually supplying each the other. A fine lesson to us, elegantly and forcibly teaching us the plea fing duties of mutual good will; as well as the neceffity of all proper returns of gratitude and obedience to him, from whom, the great ocean of all bleffings, all good things are derived, and to whom, as the Lord of eternity, all our ftreams are tending, and muft flow. But of the ocean as the emblem of eternity, we may speak hereafter. At prefent it may be neceffary to observe, that the ocean hath been fuppofed to be the parent of fountains, and in confequence of rivers, not only by means of the clouds, which convey the liquid element, in abundance, to the tops of mountains, ever cloathed in fogs and mifts, but also, as directing its waters, percolated through the earth, to the hills and rocks, whence the fountains fpring; and thus fupply ing ing them with moisture, fweetened in its paffage through the bowels of the earth, which they repay in rivers and ftreams that flow upon and beautify the external furface of the earth. This latter opinion our moral and philofophical poet Thomfon, has endeavoured to confute, as well as to establish the more received notion we shall give his excellent lines, which will preclude any further remarks of our own at prefent, as they will take up the room affigned us. Some fages fay that where the numerous wave For ever lafhes the refounding fhore, Drill'd through the fandy ftratum, every way, The waters with the fandy ftratum rife: Amidst whofe angles infinitely ftrain'd, They joyful leave their jaggy falts behind, And clear and fweeten as they foak along, Nor ftops the reftlefs fluid, mounting ftill, Tho' oft amid th' irriguous vale it fprings; But to the mountain courted by the fand That leads it darkling on in faithful mazë, Far from the parent main, it boils again. Fresh into day; and all the glittering hill Is bright with spouting rills.-But hence this vain Amufive dream! Why should the waters love They |