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Practical Difficulties.

9

its invitation for this year it says, "The Progressive Friends have no creed as the basis of association." Last year, the Pennsylvania Yearly Meeting adopted a memorial to Congress, requesting it to take immediate steps for the abolition of the army and navy. There are those who are opposed to war, and who believe in human brotherhood, but who do not think it right to abolish the army and navy. No doubt such persons would be admitted members of this body; and thus the resolutions adopted would represent, not the sentiments of the body, but of the majority of the body. But if this majority was thoroughly in earnest, it would hardly tolerate opposition to any of its practical measures, and those who differed with it must either be silent or must leave the body. But this would conflict with the principle which they evidently hold very dear, — the principle of individual freedom. They say, in their exposition of sentiments for 1855: "As a Yearly Meeting, we disclaim all disciplinary authority, whether over individual members or local associations. We shall, from time to time, declare our sentiments on such subjects as may demand our attention; but they will be armed with no other force than that which our moral influence may impart." But this would have only the weight which belongs to the resolutions adopted by the majority of a convention, and we all know how small is the influence coming from such a testimony. Witness the resolutions adopted year after year by the Legislatures of the States, which are forgotten almost before they are printed; witness the resolutions adopted at the meetings of political parties, intended merely for use at the next election. The great difficulty is to combine individual freedom of opinion in any religious or philanthropic association with any active, practical purpose. If a church or a society is to unite merely for speculative objects, if it is to be merely a meeting for discussion, there may no doubt be perfect freedom there. But as soon as it wants to do anything, it finds it impossible to tolerate difference of opinion within itself. Thus it would be hard for the American Antislavery Society to retain among its active members those who believed in the Constitution and the Union. It would be hard for the Peace Society, after it had decided to oppose all

war, to allow those who still believe in defensive war to take part in its affairs. A temperance society, desiring to make men sign a pledge of total abstinence, could not allow those who thought it best for men to drink light wines to co-operate at its meetings. For as fast as the society did its work of producing conviction, so fast would these dissenting brothers undo that work again.

These are the difficulties which lie in the way of every association that wishes to combine free thought and philanthropic action. The difficulty exists only as regards associations, not as regards individuals. An individual can think freely on every subject, and, when he wishes to act, can join the particular association with which he agrees. He may be radical as regards slavery, very conservative as regards woman's rights; -on the question of war, he may agree with the ultra party, and be a non-resistant; but as regards temperance, he may belong to those who think it right to drink in moderation. All he has to do is to think for himself, and when he wishes to act, to join the special sect with which he agrees. When he has joined the philanthropic association, he has indeed renounced, for the time he belongs to it, his freedom of opinion; but only on that particular subject, and while he remains a member.

Here seems to be the difficulty. We shall rejoice with all our hearts if this society shall succeed in solving the problem which we have suggested. We, too, have longed to see a church which should be at once practical and progressive; which should be liberal without being lukewarm; which should take up every question of humanity, not merely for investigation and discussion, but also for action. We too have longed to see a religious union within which the mind should be contantly stimulated to new thought and the freest inquiry, in which the heart should be fed by prayer and the outpouring of the deepest spiritual experience, and in which shoulder should be placed firmly to shoulder, and hand grasped strongly in hand, in the closest union for all Christian uses. Conflict of thought, communion of heart, co-operation in action, this is what we need to realize. If the Progressive Friends will help us to realize this, we shall heartily thank them. But it is necessary

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The Physical Geography of the Sea.

11

that the difficulty should be distinctly seen in its full extent, before we can hope to overcome it.

We hope that the Progressive Friends will go forward in their undertaking, and plant everywhere small local associations, which shall meet together for purposes of piety and charity, and send delegates every year to the General Yearly Meeting. We believe in trying. Speculation concerning the Church is good, but edification is better. The exposition of sentiments for 1855 says well, "We must build, as well as destroy." We are satisfied that destructive reform is a poor thing, as surely it is a very easy thing, when compared with that which is constructive. Accordingly, we desire to see encouragement and aid given to all such enterprises as the one before us.

J. F. C.

ART. II. — THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA.*

WHEN President John Quincy Adams, in his first message to Congress, proposed an appropriation for the establishment of a National Observatory, the occasion was eagerly seized by party spirit to charge a foredoomed administration with extravagant and unconstitutional views. The very language of the chief magistrate was criticised by a taste sharpened by hostility; and the expression "light-houses of the skies" was repeated far and wide in tones of contempt.

Years passed by, and the structure for proposing which the President had been so severely blamed, was erected at the suggestion of one of his successors, without discussion in Congress, and without even the knowledge, on the part of that august assembly, of what they were doing. The administration modestly asked for a building to accommodate certain charts and instruments. The necessary appropriation was made, and the building rose. It was surmounted by that peculiar dome,

The Physical Geography of the Sea. By M. F. MAURY, LL. D., Lieut. U. S. Navy. Third Edition, enlarged and improved. New York: Harper and Brothers. 1855. 8vo. pp. 287.

proportioned rather to the demands of science than to those of architectural grace, which marks the "lighthouse of the skies," as the lantern does that of the ocean. The endowment of the institution presented no difficulty. Of course, persons must be employed to take care of the "charts and instruments.” As the observatory had been erected under the name of a Depository of Charts, so was a philosopher worthy of the trust employed to superintend it, under the disguise of a "Lieut. U. S. Navy."

Singular as this history is, it is not less strange that a board of officers from the same navy that is honored by Lieutenant Maury's talents, should have proposed to place that officer on a "retired list," as if his place at Washington, instead of being one of most useful and honorable labor, were one of indolent withdrawal from the service of his country. Well has the injustice been rebuked by the general voice.

We have, in the work before us, a portion of the results of this distinguished officer's labors, in a department of natural science connected with his profession as a sailor. Some of the details of those results are embodied in the "Wind and Current Charts" of the same author; while a corps of hundreds of observers in national and commercial vessels, are carrying on their investigations for the better understanding of the subject, all under the guidance of the "Lieutenant in the Navy" who has charge of the "charts and instruments" at Washington.

We have selected this volume for comment, not only as interesting in itself and honorable to American science, but because of its connection with religion. Breathing throughout a spirit of deep reverence to the Creator, whose "wonders in the deep" are its theme, it displays those wonders in a manner so clear and so striking, that it seems impossible for an unprejudiced mind not to be impressed and elevated by the contemplation.

The subject first spoken of in the work is " The Gulf Stream," and the first chapter opens with a striking description of that remarkable current.

"There is a river in the ocean. In the severest droughts it never fails, and in the mightiest floods it never overflows. Its banks and its bottom are of cold water, while its current is of

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warm.

The Gulf of Mexico is its fountain, and its mouth is in the Arctic Seas. It is the Gulf Stream. There is in the world no other such majestic flow of waters. Its current is more rapid than the Mississippi or the Amazon."

The question of the cause of the Gulf Stream is ably discussed, and decided on strong evidence. The different degree of saltness in the torrid zone and in the temperate regions, and the diurnal motion of the earth, are, by reasoning at once ingenious and clear, shown to be among the principal causes of this wonderful ocean river.

The second chapter discusses the influence of the Gulf Stream upon climate. Most ingeniously and strikingly is this influence illustrated. A few quotations will exhibit at once the grandeur of Lieutenant Maury's theme, and the religious spirit in which it is investigated.

"As the waters in these two caldrons" (the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico) "become heated, they are borne off by the Gulf Stream, and are replaced by cooler currents through the Caribbean Sea; the surface water, as it enters here, being 3° or 4°, and that in depth 40° cooler than when it escapes from the Gulf. Taking only this difference in surface temperature as an index of the heat accumulated there, a simple calcu lation will show that the quantity of specific heat daily carried off by the Gulf Stream from those regions, and discharged over the Atlantic, is sufficient to raise mountains of iron from zero to the melting point, and to keep in flow from them a molten stream of metal greater in volume than the waters daily discharged from the Mississippi River. Who, therefore, can calculate the benign influence of this wonderful current upon the climate of the South? In the pursuit of this subject, the mind is led from nature up to the Great Architect of nature; and what mind will the study of this subject not fill with profitable emotions? Unchanged and unchanging alone, of all created things, the ocean is the great emblem of its everlasting Creator. He treadeth upon the waves of the sea,' and is seen in the wonders of the deep. 'He calleth for its waters, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth.""

Yea,

pp. 49, 50.

The influence of the Gulf Stream is felt in the West of Europe, which is washed by its spent waters, producing there a climate much more mild than that of the corresponding shores of this continent. Says our

author:

VOL. LX. -4TH S. VOL. XXVI. NO. I.

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