This is but one branch of general knowledge,
and a very secondary one compared with that infinitely higher branch
which treats of the workings of the Almighty in the ocean; workings
which render it what it is--not merely a means of commercial enterprise
for man and a home for fish, but also a great purifier and revivifier of
the earth and sweetener of the atmosphere. God is the great first cause
of all that is and that operates in the universe. It were an act of
presumption to inquire into what we may term the first acts of the
Almighty's power. But there is no presumption--on the contrary there is
propriety, as well as the highest gratification of which the human mind
is capable--in penetrating through the paths of knowledge up to that
first series of second causes which circle like a glory round the
fountain-head. We may not put the question, "How did God create all
things out of nothing?" but, all things having been created, it is quite
legitimate to inquire how the circles of their manifold operations are
carried on, and in what respect the things that be do affect each other.

No book that has of late years issued from the press treats more
eloquently and interestingly of such subjects of inquiry than that
admirable work of Captain Maury of the United States Navy, entitled "The
Physical Geography of the Sea." Much of the substance of what we have
written has been culled from the pages of that fascinating volume. But
we have merely plucked one or two leaves, as it were, and presented them
to our readers in the hope that they may be tempted by their fragrance
to pluck the flower. The mysteries of the atmospheric and aqueous
oceans are here treated of fully, yet so agreeably, that one is
frequently apt to fancy one is perusing the pages of romance.

In our own little book we have been compelled to skim lightly, and, in
many places, to pass over subjects of great interest.

As for other subjects connected with the sea, of which we may not treat,
they are innumerable. Of the sea-weeds that clothe the bottom of the
deep with the rich profusion and glowing colours of the gardens of
earth--of the myriads of animalcules (besides those we have mentioned)
that disport in its waters and fill the abyss with life and lambent
fire--of the great whales and other huge creatures that revel in its
depths and lash its waters in their terrible might--of these and a host
of kindred subjects, our space forbids our saying more t