the denser and cooler air will run thither, to restore the equilibrium. Hence may be the constant calms in that part of the ocean, called the rains. This tract being placed in the middle, between the westerly winds blowing on the hot coast, and the easterly winds that blow to the westward, the tendency of the air there is indifferent to either, and so stands in equilibrium, between both; and the weight of the incumbent atmosphere being diminished by the continual contrary winds blowing from hence, the air here holds not the copious vapour it receives, but lets it fall into frequent rains.

It is very hard to conceive, why the limits of the trade wind should be fixed about the thirtieth degree of latitude all round the globe, and that they should so seldom transgress those bounds, or fall short of them. Behold the wings of the wind.

The inquisitive and ingenious Mr. Derham found by many trials, that the wind in a great storm does move about fifty or sixty miles in an hour; that a common brisk wind moves about fifteen miles an hour. But so gentle is the course of many winds, that they do not exceed one mile an hour.

Dr. Grew observes, that there are winds (besides the trade winds) especially from the west, which blow sometimes two or three days upon one point, and will in this time drive before them a ship an hundred and fifty leagues, or four hundred and fifty English miles.

Wind is of great use to ventilate the air, and to dissipate contagious vapours; which if they should stagnate, would produce grievous diseases on the animal world. It also transfers the clouds from one place to another, for the more commodious

watering of the earth.

It likewise tempers the heat of many countries, which else would be excessive. It carries vessels on their voyages to remote countries. Windmills are driven by it,

whereof there are many benefits. But as the excellent Mr. Ray observes, that it is rarely so violent, as to destroy all before it, and overwhelm the world; this proclaims a superior power moderating it, the wisdom and goodness of Him, who brings the wind out of his treasures.

What amazing things the winds called the Typhons, and how irresistibly furious! But our merciful God stays the rough winds.

The hurricanes in the West Indies, and their brethren the monsoons in the east; what shocking stories do travellers relate of them! how direful effects are sometimes caused by them! They blow down mighty trees by the roots. They chase mighty ships up into the woods. They make every thing to tremble, and give way, that opposes them. Great God, who ridest on the wind, and makest it move which way thou shalt please; who can stand in thy sight if thou art angry!

Whatever point of the compass the wind blows upon, it may blow some good thoughts into our minds; and then it will be no ill wind to us.

"We ought certainly to consider the stormy wind, as fulfilling the word of God. And there are tempests, and whirlwinds of the divine wrath to be deprecated. But then there are influences of heaven to be desired, which are, As the wind bloweth where it listeth, and we hear the sound thereof, but cannot tell whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth."

ESSAY XIX. Of COLD.

THERE is much dispute about the first cause of cold. It is questioned by some whether the cold be any thing positive, and not a mere privation. The coldness of any thing, they say, signifies no more, than its not having its insensible parts agitated so much as those of our sensories, by which we judge of tactile qualities. To make a thing become cold, there needs no more, than that the sun, or fire, or some other agent, that more vehemently agitated its parts before, do now cease to do it.

But then, on the other side, there are instances of cold produced by vehement agitations,

To some there seems to be a mighty store of corpuscles, a little akin to nitre, exhaled from the terrestrial globe, (of the figure of which Philoponus tells us, Democritus assigned to frigorific atoms) which may more than a little contribute to our cold.

That cold (and so freezing) may arise from some saline substance floating in the air, seems probable from this; that all salts, but some above others, when mixed with snow or ice, do prodigiously increase the force of cold. And all saline bodies produce a stiffness in the parts of those bodies, into which they enter.

The force of cold is truly wonderful. Olearius tells us, in Muscovy spittle will freeze before it reach the ground. So violent the cold there, that no furs can hinder it, but sometimes the noses, the ears, the hands, and the feet of men will be frozen, and all fall off. It is reported by Fletcher and Herberstein, that not only they who travel abroad, but many in the very markets of their towns. are so mortally pinched as to fall down dead with

cold. Capt. James and Gerat de Veer tell us frightful things of the cold they found in their northern coasting. Beauplan adds, that without good precautions, cold produces those cancers, which in a few hours destroy the parts they seize upon. What mighty rands of ice have been encountered by such navigators as Munchius and Baffin, who found some icy islands near three hundred feet high above the water! In the river of Canada sometimes are seen icy islands, computed fourscore leagues in length.

The irresistible force of congelation !-Conge lation seems to be from the introduction of the frigorific particles, into the interstices between the particles of the water; and thereby getting so near to them, as to be just within the sphere of each other's attracting force, on which they cohere into one solid body.

The dimensions of water are increased by freezing; and with such a force in the expansion, that the weights raised by it, the stones broke in it, the metals obliged to give way to it, were hardly credible, if these eyes had not seen them!

"When we consider the cold, especially if we have it under our more sensible consideration, we cannot but subscribe to that word, who can stand before his cold! How naturally are we now led to a dread, and a deprecation of lying under the displeasure of the glorious God, who by that one part of his artillery, the cold alone, can soon destroy his enemies!"

The mitigations of our cold, and our comforts and supports against the assaults of it, bespeak our thankful praises to our glorious Benefactor: That we are not, as Livy says of the Alps, condemned to eternal snows!

It is observable, that the degrees of cold in several climates are not according to their degrees of latitude. Some have inet with very tolerable weather under the Arctick pole. In the north of China, for four months in the year, the rivers there are so frozen, that the ice will bear the passage not only of men, but of horses and coaches upon it. The like report could I give of my own country, which lies in the same latitude. In my warm study, from the billets of wood lying on a great fire, the sap forced out at the ends of the short billets by the fire, has frozen there, and been turned into ice, while the wood has been consuming. However, our cold is much moderated since the opening and clearing of our woods, and the winds do not blow roughly, as in the days of our fathers, when water, cast up into the air, would commonly be turned into ice before it came to the ground.

ESSAY XX. Of the Terraqueous GLOBE.

THE distance at which our globe is placed from the Sun, and the contemperation of our bodies and other things to this distance, are evident works of our glorious God.

According to the accurate observations of the English Norwood, and the French Picart, the ambit of our globe will be twenty-four thousand nine hundred and thirty miles. Wherefore supposing it spherical, the whole surface will be 197,831,392 miles; which in the solid content will be found no less than 261,631,995,920 miles. The cubic feet will be 30,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. The earth, with her satellite, the moon, moves about the sun, according to Derham, in an