When the rivulet hurries on its course, and meeting with obstructions, leaps over them in mimic wrath, overturning some little raft upon which, perchance, a weary fly has alighted,—it is a miniature of those rapids on whose banks the hippopotamus and the alligator yet live; and where, though rarely, man may be seen directing his raft over the troubled current, amid the rush of debris from forests unexplored.
And when, in a basin of the rivulet, two opposing currents meet, and form a little vortex into which insect life and vegetable fragments coming within the sphere of its influence are drawn,—it is a miniature of the roaring whirlpool, or the wilder maelstrom of the Norwegian seas.
Nature rehearses all her parts in mild whispers; and for every picture that she paints, she places a first study upon the canvas. Man need not go into the heart of her terrors to understand their laws. Many an unknown Humboldt, sitting by the river's side, may rejoice in the "aspects of nature," and share the bliss of knowledge with the great philosopher.
"Can any understand the spreadings of the clouds, or the noise of his tabernacle?"—Job xxxvi.
CHAPTER XXXII.
A barometer is an instrument which indicates the pressure of the atmosphere, and which takes its name from two Greek words signifying measurer of weight.