and the mental affections of a human being; and various other characteristics of the parabolic style of the Hebrew Scriptures. Such language was a condescension to the infirmities of mortals, and best adapted to the instruction of the general mass of mankind: but it is self-evident that it must be interpreted in a manner congruous with the perfect attributes of the Deity, and the reality of things. A philological survey of the initial section of the Bible (Gen. i. 1, to ii. 3.) brings out the result:--- i. That the first sentence is a simple, independent, all-comprehending, axiom, to this effect-that matter, elementary or combined, aggregated only or organized, and dependent sentient and intellectual beings, have not existed from eternity, either in self-continuity or succession, but had a beginning; that their beginning took place by the all-powerful will of ONE BEING, the Self-existent, Independent, and Infinite in all perfections; and that the date of that beginning is not made known. ii. That, at a recent epoch, our planet was brought into a state of disorganization, detritus, or ruin, (perhaps we have no perfectly appropriate term,) from a former condition. iii. That it pleased the Almighty, Wise, and Benevolent Supreme, out of that state of ruin, to adjust the surface of the earth to its now existing condition; partly by the operation of the mechanical and chemical causes (what we usually call Laws of Nature,) which Himself had established; and partly, that is, whenever it was necessary, by His own creative power, or other immediate intervention; the whole extending through the period of six natural days. It has been indeed maintained, that the conjunction and, with which the next sentence begins, connects the succeeding matter with the preceding, so as to forbid the intercalating of any considerable space of time. To this we reply, that the Hebrew conjunction, agreeably to the simplicity of ancient languages, expresses an annexation of subject or a continuation of speech, in any mode whatever, remote as well as proximate. For denoting such different modes of annexation, the Greek and other languages have a variety of particles; but their use is in Hebrew compensated by the shades of meaning which the tone in oral speech, and the connexion in writing, could supply. To go no further than the first two leaves of the Hebrew bible, we find this copula rendered in our authorized version, by thus, but, now, and also. This interpretation is what I have been labouring to diffuse for more than thirty years, in private and in public, by preaching, by academical lecturing, and by printing. But it is not my interpretation, though I believe that I originally derived it from the sole study of the Clemens of Alexandria, Origen, Basil, Chrysostome, and Augustine, among the fathers (though not in a truly philosophical way, which was not to be expected), departed from the vulgar notion: and some judicious interpreters of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries have done the same, in particular, Bishop Patrick and Dr. David Jennings. Of modern Scripture critics. I say nothing; for prejudice, justly or unjustly, may lie against them. Not that the question is to be settled by human authority. Our only appeal for decision is to the Bible itself, fairly interpreted. But the mention of venerable names may be useful, to allay the apprehensions of some good persons, who only hear obscurely of these subjects, and have not the means of forming an independent judgment on solid grounds. I, therefore, with many, feel greatly obliged to Dr. Buckland for having come in aid of this, which I believe to be, the true sense and meaning of the sacred writers. I am framing no hypotheses in geology; I only plead that the ground is clear, and that the dictates of Scripture interpose no bar to observations and reasonings upon the mineralogical constitution of the earth, and the remains of organized creatures which its strata disclose. If those investigations should lead us to attribute to the earth, and to the other planetary and astral spheres, an antiquity which millions or ten thousand millions of years might fail to represent, the divine records forbid not their deduction. Let but the geologist maintain what his science so loudly proclaims, that the universe around us has been formed, at whatever epoch, or through whatever succession of epochs, to us unknown, by the power and wisdom of an Almighty first cause. Let him but reject the absurdities of pre-existent matter, of an eternal succession of finite beings, of formations without a former, laws without a lawgiver, and nature without a God. Let him but admit that man is but of yesterday, and that the design of revelation is to train him to the noblest purity and happiness in the immortal enjoyment of his Creator's beneficence; and he will find the doctrines of the Bible not an impediment, but his aid and his joy. I have written much more than I anticipated, and I will tax your indulgence no longer; otherwise, confirmation and illustration might be brought from various passages of Scripture, and it would plainly appear that a just interpretation of the idioms of the Hebrew language, marked with archaic simplicity, would show them to be susceptible of an unforced accommodation to philosophical truth; just as, in every modern language, phrases of current parlance, which, literally taken, would be absurd, are continually used by the masters of science as well as by common men. In such cases, error is neither given nor taken, and to affect philosophical precision would be miserable pedantry. This general principle may, I humbly think, be satisfactorily applied to the account of the Noachian Deluge, and to the obviating of some of its difficulties, though others will probably remain as a proper test of our disposition to rely implicitly on the infinite wisdom, goodness, and power of the glorious Author and Preserver of all things; "in whose hand are the deep places of the earth, and the strength of the hills is His also." Dec. 10, 1836. J. P. S. QUESTIONS FOR SOLUTION RELATING TO METEOROLOGY, HYDROGRAPHY, AND THE ART OF NAVIGATION. BY M. ARAGO. [Continued from p. 397, vol. II.] PHENOMENA OF THE SEA. ON THE MEANS OF DRAWING UP SEA-WATER FROM GREAT DEPTHS, AND OF ASCERTAINING IN WHAT PROPORTION THE TWO PRINCIPAL CONSTITUENTS OF ATMOSPHERIC AIR ARE CONTAINED IN IT*. CHEMISTS have long since proved, that water becomes impregnated with the gases which rest on its surface. This absorption takes place in consequence of true chemical affinities existing between the water and the different gases; when their effects on oxygen and azote, the two principal constituents of atmospheric air, are carefully examined, the affinity is found to be much stronger with regard to the first than the second. Hence it follows, that the waters of seas and rivers, being always in contact with the atmosphere, become at length impregnated with gaseous mixtures, in which oxygen predominates. Indeed, the very accurate experiments of MM. von Humboldt and Gay-Lussac have proved that rain-water, the water of the Seine, and snow-water, contain a mixture of oxygen and azote, in every 100 parts of which there are from 29 to 32 of oxygen; though the proportion of oxygen in atmospheric air is constantly equal to 21 parts only, and that in all seasons and climates. MM. von Humboldt and Provençal have in addition to this ascertained, that the absolute volume of mingled gases contained in water near the surface is of the volume of water. It follows as a necessary consequence of these properties, that the vast extent of sea which covers a large part of the globe, is impregnated with a mixture of gases, the proportions of which, near the surface, must be similar to those just mentioned. I have ascertained that it is so at the depth of eleven hundred yards; for, in an experiment I formerly made in the Mediterranean, sea-water, drawn from that depth, yielded a mixture which contained 28 parts of oxygen in every 100. But here several important questions in terrestrial physics present themselves, which cannot be solved by the apparatus I then employed. In proportion to the descent into the sea, does the pressure of the superior portion upon the inferior become greater; and as a column of seawater eleven yards in height, is nearly of the same weight as a column of air of an equal base extending from the surface of the earth to the limit of the atmosphere, it follows that at a depth of eleven hundred yards the water sustains a pressure of a hundred atmospheres. How enormous, then, must this pressure be on beds still lower, if the mean depth of the sea, at a distance from the coasts, extends to several miles, as the laws of gravitation seem to indicatet! It has also been proved, by direct experiment, that water, whose surface is in contact with compressed gases, * This part of the subject was drawn up by M. Biot. + Mécanique Céleste, tom. ii. p. 200. and which sustains their pressure, absorbs the same volume of these gases as if they were subjected to the simple pressure of a single atmosphere; so that the weight absorbed becomes proportionably greater. If, then, the single fact of a uniform absorption, propagated from one bed to another throughout the whole mass of waters, be sufficient to account for the presence of a considerable volume of air, how greatly may the quantity be increased if it should be in proportion to the pressure due to each depth! As this saturation must have been in gradual operation ever since the seas were formed, it must also have modified gradually the preexisting atmosphere, and perhaps continues to affect the present one if the affinity which produces the saturation is not satisfied. The influence of these phenomena on the state of the atmosphere, and, consequently, on the conditions of existence of the living beings on the surface of the globe, is amply sufficient to induce us to examine them, and to measure the extent of their operation. For this purpose, it is desirable to obtain sea-water from great depths, far from land, and to bring it to the surface with all the air which it contains. This air must then be disengaged by boiling, its volume measured under the ordinary pressure of the atmosphere, and finally subjected to chemical analysis. In these operations, the only difficult one is that of drawing the water from the desired depth, and bringing it to the surface with all its contents. First, care must be taken not to employ vessels which are exhausted, or filled with air only, designed to open and admit the water at the assigned depth; for the pressure to which they must be subjected before they are deep enough, will cause the water to filter through the joints of the most perfect plugs, or crush the vessel if these resist. And, secondly, if the gaseous mixture contained in the deep-lying beds is subjected to the same pressure which they undergo, it will expand inversely when the apparatus is brought near the surface, and will either escape by the plug, or burst the vessel containing it. In order to avoid these contrary effects, a hollow glass cylinder ought to be employed, closed at one extremity by a solid plate of metal, thus forming a complete bucket provided with a handle, to which a cord is attached to let it down to the depths of the sea. This bucket being empty, and open to the surrounding water, descends into the different beds without being injured by their pressure. When it has reached the required depth, another cord is pulled, this is attached by an inverted handle to its lower part, and serves to invert it. This second cord is then employed to draw up the apparatus, and in order that it may not get entangled with the first, it is worked from the other end of the ship. The cylinder of glass has two bottoms, one fixed, the other moveable. The latter is in reality the piston of an air-pump, which descends by its own weight, when the bucket is drawn up; at the same time, the fixed bottom has a small hole, furnished with a valve, opening inwards by the pressure of the surrounding water, and allowing it to enter into the empty space made by the descending piston. When this has completed its descent, and the space is filled, the valve in the fixed bottom closes by its own spring, and the admitted water is thus separated from all other during the drawing up. But if this water contain compressed air, thing can counteract its expansive tendency, or that of the air it contains, when it is brought to the surface, where the pressure of water externally is removed; it will then either escape or burst the apparatus. To guard against this, a free issue must be provided for all possible expansion either of the water or air. For this purpose the fixed bottom is furnished with a lateral tube which leads to a gas-bladder; the latter having been first filled with water, then emptied and pressed together before the sinking of the apparatus. This bladder will receive all the air which may be disengaged from the water on approaching the surface; and, if any be so disengaged, will return more or less inflated. Then by closing the stopcocks with which the tube is provided, the bladder may be separated from the vessel containing the water, its volume measured, and the enclosed air analyzed; after this, the air which may still remain in the water may be examined, and also all the substances which the water may hold in solution. Such is the apparatus which has been intrusted to the commander of the Bonite; and the zeal, as well as the intelligence, of that officer, affords us the assurance, that, under his directions, it will be usefully employed to solve the various questions indicated above, relating to terrestrial physics; questions which, besides their purely scientific interest, have an additional importance attached to them, by the knowledge which their solution would supply respecting the permanence or variability of our atmosphere, and the conditions of existence of the animated beings which exist in the depths of the sea. MARINE CURRENTS. The Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and the Mediterranean Sea, are traversed by numerous currents, which are the more dangerous, as they carry vessels out of their proper course, without the pilot suspecting it; in cloudy weather, particularly, he has no means of ascertaining their influence. Among the phenomena of the sea, and considered in their twofold connexion with theory and practice, there are certainly none more deserving than these of a high degree of attention by navigators of every country. The numerous memoirs and works specially appropriated to the subject, such as those of Ducoudray, Romme, and even the posthumous and scientific treatise of Major Rennell, which has recently appeared, are very far, in my opinion, from having exhausted the subject. Of this the reader will, finally, be able to judge. ON THE CAUSE OF CURRENTS.-The most remarkable currents observed by navigators are, in the Atlantic : The current, which, having gone round the Bank of the Agulhas and The current, termed equinoctial, which runs invariably from east to 1 |