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¬the mind, infinitely various — How profound are its caverns winch no line can reach, nor the deepest knowledge account for — unfathomable to the philosopher in his closet, as to the sailor upon its sin face! Has it always, as now, so curiously indented the land, or have its boun- daries been abridged ? If its empire has been contracted, did it retire spontaneously, or did subterranean fire invade it, and plant earth within its domains? From whence is the salt that has for ages preserved it ? If the moon raises its floods by attraction on the side nearest her, how do they rise up on the opposite, and why on the equator are they at rest ? When its tides are thus lifted up, whatever exalts them, and when furious under the lash of the tempest they threaten our shores with destruction, what is it that commands them to return to their beds and to sleep? When smoothed again for the. impatient navigator, what is it which directs his course ? Whence is it that rude, inanimate mat- ter, even the unshapen stone we tread upon, de- rives an intelligence beyond Newton's mind, even ¬to ¬
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