by Diane Fontaine Maury-Corbin

“ This mountain draws the heat from them they are formed into clouds and condensed into rain, which, falling to the earth, make it soft with showers, causing the trees of the fields to clap their hands, the valleys to shout, and the mountains to sing. Thus the earth is made to yield her increase, and the heart of man is glad.
“Nor does the office of this cup of water in the physical economy end here. It has brought heat from the sea in the southern hemisphere to be set free here for the regulation of our climates; it has ministered to the green plants, and give meat and drink to man and beast. ”

“ When I, a pioneer in one department of this beautiful science, discover the truths of Revelation and the truths of science reflecting light the one upon the other, how can I, as a truth loving, knowledge seeking man, fail to point out the beauty and rejoice in its discovery? ”

“ The Church, ere yet physical geography had attained to the dignity of a science in our schools, and even before man had endowed it with a name, saw and appreciated its dignity, the virtue of its chief agents. What have we heard here in this grove by a thousand voices this morning? A song of praise, such as these hills have not heard since the morning stars sang together the ‘Benedicite’ of our mother Church, invoking the very agents whose workings and offices it is the business of the physical geographer to study and point out. ”

“ It has now to cater among the rocks for the fish and insects of the sea. Eating away your mountains, it fills up the valleys, and then, loaded with lime and salts of various minerals, it goes singing and dancing and leaping back to the sea, owning man, by the way, as a taskmaster — turning mills, driving machinery, transporting merchandise for him — and finally reaching the ocean. ”

“ Decked with stars as the sky is, the field of astronomy affords no subject on contemplation more ennobling, more sublime, or more profitable than those which we may find in the air and the sea. When we regard these from certain points of view, they present the appearance of wayward things, obedient to no law, but fickle in their movements, and subject only to chance. ”

“ The rule is, never to forget who is the Author of the great volume which Nature spreads out before us, and always to remember that the same Being is the Author of the book which revelation holds up to us, and though the two works are entirely different, their records are equally true, and when they bear upon the same point, as now and then they do, it is as impossible that they should contradict each other as it is that either should contradict itself. ”

“ I HAVE BEEN BLAMED BY SOME MEN OF SCIENCE, BOTH IN THIS COUNTRY AND IN ENGLAND, FOR QUOTING THE BIBLE IN CONFIRMATION OF THE DOCTRINES OF PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. THE BIBLE, THEY SAY, WAS NOT WRITTEN FOR SCIENTIFIC PURPOSES, AND IS THEREFORE OF NO AUTHORITY IN MATTERS OF SCIENCE. I BEG PARDON! THE BIBLE IS AUTHORITY FOR EVERYTHING IT TOUCHES. WHAT WOULD YOU THINK OF THE HISTORIAN WHO SHOULD REFUSE TO CONSULT THE HISTORICAL RECORDS OF THE BIBLE, BECAUSE THE BIBLE WAS NOT WRITTEN FOR THE PURPOSES OF HISTORY? ”

“ In her services she teaches her children in their songs of praise to call upon certain physical agents, principals in this newly established department of human knowledge; upon the waters above the firmament, upon the showers, dew, wind, fire and heat, winter and summer, frost and cold, ice and snow, night and day, light and darkness, lightning and clouds, mountains and hills, green things, tree and plants, whales, and all things that move in the waters, fowls of the air, with beasts and cattle, to bless, praise, and magnify the Lord! ”

“ THE BIBLE IS TRUE AND SCIENCE IS TRUE, AND THEREFORE EACH, IF TRULY READ, BUT PROVES THE TRUTH OF THE OTHER. The agents in the physical economy of our planet are ministers of Him who made both it and the Bible. ”

“ But the physical geographer, when he warms himself by the coal fire in winter, or studies by the light of the gas burner at night, recognizes in the light and heat which he then enjoys the identical light and heat which came from the sun ages ago, and which, with provident care, have been bottled away in the shape of a mineral, and stored away in the bowels of the earth for man’s use, thence to be taken at his convenience and liberated at will for his manifold purposes. ”

“ There is a difference, not universally well understood, between the effects on climate incident to their being fresh or salt. Were the lakes salt, like the Caspian, they would give to their region a warmer temperature; the winters, latitude remaining the same, would be milder, the summers more sultry. This arises simply from the effects of evaporation: fresh water, according to the observations of Professor Chapman at Montreal, evaporates faster than salt, carrying off more heat. ”

“ Soon the ephemeral life that animates these little navigators will be extinct; but the same power that cared for them in life, now guides them after death; for though dead, their task in the physical economy of our planet is not yet finished, nor have they ceased to afford instruction in philosophy.
“The frail shell is now to be drawn to distant seas by the lower currents. ”

“ I have been occupied, during the winter and spring, among other things, with a new edition of the Physical Geography of the Sea. It is greatly enlarged, and, I hope, improved. It certainly presents many fine subjects for thought and contemplation. I know of nothing more profitable or ennobling than the discovery of new relations in the physical economy. ”

“ Some day science will sound the depths to which this dead shell has fallen, and the little creature will perhaps afford solution for a problem as yet unsolved; for it may be the means of revealing the existence of the submarine currents that have carried it off, and of enabling the physical geographer to trace out the secret paths of the sea. ”

“ That you are both poor is no ground of solicitude; happiness is above riches, and if you are not happy, being poor, wealth would not, I apprehend, make you happy. Poverty has its virtues, and my struggles with it are full of pleasant remembrances. I hope your experience will tally with mine. I do not say, strive to be content, for in that there is no progression; but be content to strive.
I told Will you ought to live to yourselves. ”

“ Thus the right minded student of this science is brought to recognize in the dewdrop the materials of which ‘He who walketh upon the wings of the wind maketh His chariot.’ He also discovers in the raindrop a clue by which the Christian philosopher may be conducted into the very chambers from which the hills are watered. ”

“ Like the leaf carried through the air by the wind, the lifeless remains descend from depth to depth by an insensible fall, even to the appointed burial place on the bottom of the deep, there to be collected into heaps and gathered into beds, which at some day are to appear above the surface, a storehouse rich with fertilizing ingredients for man’s use. ”

“ Then hospitalities and good neighbourhood, a smile of welcome from mine hostess and a gentle voice make a sauce that is savoury for anything; and the poor — I do not mean more especially objects of charity, but those who are in a more humble sphere of life than it has pleased God to place you — never lack, as in your sweet little heart I am sure you never do, in consideration for them. ”

“ Thus in the lakes the evaporation may be represented as five or six times the water at Niagara, and to produce this evaporation requires the same amount of heat that would suffice to raise Niagara to boiling point, if such a thing may be imagined; and imagining this, we may conceive of what is actually going on. The loss of this amount of heat, parted with by the lakes, leaves them and their region colder in the winter and summer. ”

“ They are both true; and when your men of science, with vain and hasty conceit, announce the discovery of disagreement between them, rely upon it, the fault is not with the witness of HIS records, but with the worm who essays to interpret evidence which he does not understand. ”

“ There is no trait perhaps more winning than that of a generous confidence. Self examination — constant, close self examinations — are indispensable; there are some that may be made all the better with the assistance of your husband — make them. Confidence begets confidence.
I would have you both bear in mind that this is the time for you to accommodate and adjust yourselves to each other, and with two such comely dispositions to work upon, this may be soon accomplished, and that so thoroughly that all your future life will abound in the good results. ”

“ You have given your hand to a young man of irreproachable character, of an amiable disposition, and a cultivated mind, and were it not that he is of kin, the match would be as free from objection and quite as promising as need be. ”

“ It there joins the currents to be conveyed to its appointed place, which it never fails to reach in due time, with food in due quantities for the inhabitants of the deep, and with materials of the right kind to be elaborated, in the workshops of the sea, into pearls, corals, and islands — all for man’s use. ”

“ IT'S THE TALENT OF INDUSTRY THAT MAKES A MAN. I don’t think that so much depends upon intellect as is generally supposed; but INDUSTRY AND STEADINESS OF PURPOSE, they are the things. By the way, Smith invites Major Mordecai and myself, in the name of the State, to visit Lexington next June as a Board of Examiners. ”

“ The subject of Lieutenant Maury’s lecture was the importance of a ‘CAREFUL METEOROLOGICAL SURVEY’ of the great North American Lakes. It was delivered before the Chicago Mechanics Institute.
“The subject is one of the highest interest and importance. In Chicago, the great metropolis of the lakes, this distinguished savant and lecturer had a crowded house on the occasion of his treating of a theme so important as the navigation and commerce of these great inland seas, and the benefits accruing to all from their complete and perfect meteorological survey. ”

“ The dissolution of it will, I fear, come before you or I would be willing to see it. With statesmanship among our rulers, patriotism among our politicians, and virtue among the people, it need never come. ”

“ They are disposed to be kind and good to you — meet them a little more than half way. As for reading, with your good taste you cannot go well amiss, only, in selecting authors, do not select merely for amusement — select for profit also. ”

“ These preliminaries passed, the speaker connected them with the interests of the lake region, of which he proceeded to speak. Quoting fully, and with honourable mention of their author, the full and clear reports of Colonel Graham of this city, he reviewed fully the perils to which lake fleets are exposed. ”