BOOK I.
Of the Out-works of the Terraqueous Globe; the Atmosphere, Light, and Gravity.
CHAP. I.
Of the Atmosphere in general.
The Atmosphere, or Mass of Air, Vapours and Clouds, which surrounds our Globe, will appear to be a matter of Design, and the infinitely wise Creator’s Work, if we consider its Nature and Make[a], and its Use to the World[].
1. Its Nature and Make, a Mass of Air, of subtile penetrating Matter, fit to pervade other Bodies, to penetrate into the inmost Recesses of Nature, to excite, animate, and spiritualize; and in short, to be the very Soul of this lower World. A thing consequently
2. Of greatest Use to the World, useful to the Life, the Health, the Comfort, the Pleasure, and Business of the whole Globe. It is the Air the whole Animal World breatheth, and liveth by; not only the Animals inhabiting the Earth[c] and Air[d], but those of the Waters[e] too. Without it most Animals live scarce half a Minute[f]; and others, that are the most accustomed to the want of it, live not without it many Days.
And not only Animals themselves, but even Trees and Plants, and the whole vegetable Race, owe their Vegetation and Life to this useful Element; as will appear when I come to speak of them, and is manifest from their Glory and Verdure in a free Air, and their becoming Pale and Sickly, and Languishing and Dying, when by any means excluded from it[g].
Thus useful, thus necessary, is the Air to the Life of the animated Creatures; and no less is it to the Motion and Conveyance of many of them. All the winged Tribes owe their Flight and Buoyancy[h] to it, as shall be shewn in proper place: And even the watery Inhabitants themselves cannot ascend and descend into their Element, well without it[].
But it would be tedious to descend too far into Particulars, to reckon up the many Benefits of this noble Appendage of our Globe in many useful Engines[k]; in many of the Functions and Operations of Nature[l] in the Conveyance of Sounds; and a Thousand Things besides. And I shall but just mention the admirable use of our Atmosphere in ministring to the enlightening of the World, by its reflecting the Light of the heavenly Bodies to us[m]; and refracting the Sun-beams to our Eye, before it ever surmounteth our Horizon[n]; by which means the Day is protracted throughout the whole Globe; and the long and dismal Nights are shorten’d in the frigid Zones, and Day sooner approacheth them; yea the Sun itself riseth in Appearance (when really it is absent from them) to the great Comfort of those forlorn Places[o].
But passing by all these Things with only a bare mention, and wholly omitting others that might have been named, I shall only insist upon the excellent Use of this noble circumambient Companion of our Globe, in respect of two of its Meteors, the Winds, and the Clouds and Rain[p].