Living water

“ True, there is a line of shore where strange ferns and unknown club-mosses and reed-like plants are growing; but these only border the vast water-world, and we have reason to believe that no living animal wanders over that wild and barren country. But the water itself is full of life, though its inhabitants are of low kinds, as if Nature herself was as yet only half-awake. ”

“ You find water all over and everywhere, in oceans, rivers, springs, wells, sufficient to supply all the wants of man. So, too, there is not a meager quantity, but an abundance of living water. If all the human beings who have ever lived upon this earth could come to this heavenly Fountain in a [64] body, there would be water enough and to spare, and it is everywhere and for everybody. ”

“ The simple living creatures, swarming in the waters [20] of stagnant ponds and murky pools, the bits of living matter, inhabiting by the million the little world of a hanging drop of water, are supplied with the most complicated reactions, mechanical and more especially chemical, for the maintenance of their life existence. ”

“ The belief that life in water, however, is less favourable than life on land to the fullest development of the sense is supported by the fact we have already mentioned that mammals living in water are extremely microsmatic. ”

“ Such is the condition of the earth’s surface that the deepest places on this terrestrial globe are filled with water; thus oceans, lakes, pools, and rivers are formed.
That all living substances, whether vegetable or animal, are composed more than two-thirds of water.
That more than two-thirds of the entire quantity of food taken daily into the animal economy consists of water. That is to say, we feed on more than two-thirds of water.
Nothing living can maintain its existence without two-thirds of water. ”

“ The river itself portrays humanity precisely, with its tortuous windings, its accumulation of driftwood, its unsuspected depths, and its crystalline shallows, singing in the Summer sun. Barriers may be built across its path, but they bring only power, as the conquering of an obstacle is always sure to do. Sometimes when the rocks and stone-clad hills loom large ahead, and eternity itself would be needed to carve a passage, there is an easy way around. The discovery of it makes the river sing with gladness and turns the murmurous deeps to living water, bright with ripples and foam. ”

“ But since water encompasses the earth, and man is not an aquatic, but a land-animal, living in the air, and requiring much light, Providence formed many eminences and cavities in the earth, so that these cavities should receive the whole or a great part of the water which covers the land beneath it; and that the eminences should rise and conceal the water beneath them, except so much as was necessary for the use of the human race, the animals and plants about it. ”

“ Certainly those who have the water-sense, yet are required by circumstances to earn their living as landsmen, have all dreamed these dreams. In many people the sight of water responds to some fundamental need of the mind. ”

“ High up it can only show itself at intervals between smothering snow-beds which form continuous bridges. Even the thundering fall of the Handeck becomes a gentle thread of pure water creeping behind a broad sheet of ice, more delicately carved and moulded than a lady's veil, and so diminished in volume that one wonders how it has managed to festoon the broad rock faces with so vast a mass of pendent icicles. The pulse of the mountains is beating low; the huge arteries through which the life-blood courses so furiously in summer have become a world too wide for this trickle of pellucid water. ”

“ There is no water in oxygen, no water in hydrogen: it comes bubbling fresh from the imagination of the living God, rushing from under the great white throne of the glacier. The very thought of it makes one gasp with an elemental joy no metaphysician can analyse. ”

“ And if you will shut your eyes and imagine the reality back of that chart, you will see hundreds of cool, clear springs flowing successively into runs, brooks, creeks, larger streams, river branches, rivers, and finally into the great river—the reservoir of all. And everywhere the waters go there is life. The only difference between these two streams of life is in the direction. The blood flows from the largest toward the smallest; the water flows from the smallest toward the largest. Both bring life with its accompaniments of beauty and vigor and fruitfulness. ”

“ Fresh water may, farther, be divided into atmospheric, which includes hail, rain, and snow-water, and also dew; stagnant, such as that of lakes, ponds, and marshes; and running, which comprehends spring, well, and river-water. ”

“ The winds, by the flapping of their mighty wings, drive the clouds over the land to the hills and the mountains and the thirsty fields; and there they pour their blessings on the farms, pastures, orchards, and the dusty roads and way-side grass, bringing greenness and gladness every-where.
Without water nothing would grow; every thing would dry up and wither.
All animals drink water, for it forms a part of their blood and thus helps to keep them alive. All trees and plants drink it by drawing it through their roots or leaves, for it helps to form their sap. ”

“ In a suction green as an uncut emerald, a volume of water, twenty fathoms deep, is hurled over a precipice 160 feet high. One hundred million tons of water pass over every hour, with a roar that can be heard ten miles away, and a reverberation that shakes the very earth itself, into the seething cauldron below, shrouded in an eternal mist:—"There is neither speech nor language, but their voices are heard." ”

“ The rock has become disintegrated and decomposed through natural processes. The action of the weather is the most important factor in creating soil. Water falling on rock not only wears it away mechanically, but through certain mild acid elements which it acquires, disintegrates the binding materials that hold rock segments together. In addition, there is the action of frost and freezing, too, making the moisture in rock expand and contract and thereby causing the breaking down of the segments. ”

“ Humus, which, it has been pointed out, is decaying vegetable matter, serves as a sponge for the absorption of soil water and for underground water supplies. Therefore, the more humus that can be plowed into the soil, other conditions being equal, the greater is the ability of the plants growing in that soil to withstand drouth. As soils are cultivated, the tendency is for the humus to become “burned out” and to have a reduced moisture-holding capacity. To overcome this tendency, it is necessary to add vegetable matter to the soil whenever it is possible. ”

“ Lofty natural mounds rose amidst the rest, with the same lovely and sweeping outline, showing everywhere the plastic power of water,—water, mother of beauty, which, by its sweet and eager flow, had left such lineaments as human genius never dreamt of. ”

“ Water is a general solvent of substances of which plants and animals are organized and the means of life to them. As all life and the substances which support it come from the Lord in a constantly flowing stream, the ocean, the clouds, the rain, and dew, the springs which well forth from the hills and the flowing stream are perfect correspondents and representations of the methods by which He works in all planes of the creation. ”

“ Rivers are to the globe what the veins are to the animal organization. They pick up the surplus moisture not needed in the growth of vegetation and for the sustenance of animal life, and carry it on, together with the débris that it gathers in its course, to the great reservoirs, the seas and oceans, where it is redistilled and purified by the action of the sun's rays. From here it is carried back in the form of invisible moisture and again precipitated in the purified state, to help carry on the great operations of growth—animal and vegetable. ”

“ So our rivers are doing to-day what they have always done—they are tearing down rocks, grinding and sifting the fragments, and letting them fall where the current of fresh water meets a great body of water that is still, or has currents contrary to that of the river.
Do you see a little dead fish in the water? It is on the way to become a fossil, and the mud that sifts over it, to become a layer of slate. Every seashore buries its dead in layers of sand and mud. ”

“ The rain-water comes down from heaven as water, and nothing but water. Rain-water is the only pure water, after all. How would you save that for the poor people who have none? There; run away and hunt rabbits on the moor: but look, meanwhile, how you would save some of this beautiful and precious water which is roaring away into the sea. ”

“ The waters, too, whether of the ocean or of the land, teem with animated beings. Scarcely is a particle of matter to be found that does not present inhabitants to our view; and a drop of ditch-water is a little world in itself, stored with inmates of corresponding magnitude. ”

“ We have gained infinitely in comfort in our perfect water systems and lavish water of to-day, but we have lost the gratification of the senses which came from the sight and sound of freshly drawn or running water. ”

“ Stretches of water and great reaches of land and the atmosphere furnish the basis upon which organisms must act, and either water or air, the medium that must serve them for many of their most vital functions. Glancing over the opportunities for survival of life in a delicate, simple condition, we can hardly fail to recognize the water as the most natural element for primal life-forms. ”

“ We learn to know where the springs of pure water are, welling up out of the deep ground in a tiny pool under some big rock or between the roots of a great yellow birch tree. And when the sun shines hot at noon, and a lost trail and a vanished bird leave us to the sudden realization that we are tired and thirsty, we know where is the nearest water. ”

“ We cannot understand how water, which, like the wind, goeth where it listeth, has had its bed of white stones built for it, and has been trained, as pet dogs are, to run and tumble and lie down at the will of the master. ”

“ Groping after some explanation of the natural phenomenon that the earth became fertile when water was applied to it, and that seed burst into life under the same influence, the early biologist formulated the natural and not wholly illogical idea that water was the repository of life-giving powers. Water was equally necessary for the production of life and for the maintenance of life. ”

“ Such are some of the facts connected with this important fluid—water. So common and abundant is it in nature, that we are apt to overlook its value; but we need only be deprived of it for a season, when we shall set a due estimate upon its importance. Pure and sparkling to the eye, bland and refreshing to the taste, whether it bubbles up from mother earth, gurgles in rills, flows along in streams and rivers, or spreads out in lakes and oceans, it every where proves a blessing,—and ought to be universally regarded as one of the most inestimable gifts of Providence to man. ”

“ God has so made it that as much water is incessantly rising into the air from the sea as is being poured into it. But how is it, then, that the streams and rivers do not dry up ? Whence comes that volume of water which they are continuously pouring into the sea? The mists and clouds which rise from the sea are driven over the land by the wind, and fall back on the earth in the form of either dew, fog, rain or snow. ”

“ Also the exterior and outward shape or form makes some bodies more apt to sink then others; Indeed, the outward form and shape of Creatures is one of the chief causes of either sinking or swimming. But to conclude, water in its interior nature is of a mean or middle degree, as neither too rare, nor too grave a body; and for its exterior quality, it is in as high a degree for wetness, as fire is for heat; and being apt both to divide, and to unite, it can bear a burden, and devour a burden, so that some bodies may swim, and others sink ”

“ Again, when they come to our large rivers, which run almost dry before the summer storms fall, the thirsty creatures stream over the steep banks into the bed of the river, and drink themselves heavy with water. ”

“ It is the sea water mingling here into the river—
at least so it seems—perhaps it is something else—but what matter?
The sea water! It is quiet and smooth here!
How slowly they move, little by little trying
the hawsers that drop and groan with their agony. ”

“ Aqua vini is what he calls it, but some name it, he says, aqua vitæ, or water which preserves itself always, and golden water. It is well called water of life, he says, because it strengthens the body and prolongs life. ”

“ Success in choosing a satisfactory location and home in the country calls for careful study and good judgment throughout the procedure. In urban centers many services are taken for granted, such as water supply, sewerage, public utility connections and delivery systems. The establishment of a home in the country calls for the consideration of all these services. Some may not be available and preparations must be made to do without them or to set up such procedures as will take care of the family’s needs on the basis of the individual home. ”

“ As the sea everywhere, even down in those depths where the sun's light cannot pierce through the masses of water, is peopled by millions of creatures—every drop of water, as we might say, alive with life—I thought it a good one. ”

“ It seems as if there were a spirit moving not only upon the waters, but in the waters; as if the great deep were a living organism, of which the ebb and flow were like the circulation of the blood in the human frame. ”

“ From there it come out in fountains and rivers.
“Animals, men, cultivations and mills all draw water from the fountains.
“Only, so that the water infiltrates the soil and goes into the earth, there must be ground vegetation. ”