“All things considered,” says Newton, “I think it probable that God, in the beginning, formed matter in solid, hard, impenetrable, movable particles; of such sizes and figures, and with such other properties as most conduced to the end for which He formed them. And that these primitive particles, being solids, are incomparably harder than any of the sensible porous bodies compounded of them; even so hard as never to wear, or break in pieces; no other power being able to divide what God made one in the first Creation. While these corpuscles remain entire, they may compose bodies of one and the same matter and texture in all ages; but should they wear away or break in pieces, the nature of things depending on them would be changed. Water and earth composed of old worn particles and fragments of particles, would not be of the same nature and texture now with water and earth composed of entire particles at the beginning. And therefore, that Nature may be lasting, the changes of corporeal things are to be placed only in the various separations and new associations of these permanent corpuscles.” So wrote the man, “Qui genus humanum ingenio superavit,” who at the age of twenty-four had already invented the Fluxional Calculus, discovered the Decomposition of Light, and enunciated and proved, in a series of lemmas, the law of Universal Gravitation. * * * * * But soft! What is this which steals upon our senses through bobbing apple-blossoms at the open casement? It is the delicious, oystery smell of the Sea, as the afternoon tide runs in with a sound like that of fairy-bells upon the sand and rock and loose shingle. That scent, and sight, and sound, are altogether irresistible. We throw aside Dr. Buckland and Hugh Miller, clap on a “wide-awake,” rush down at once by the zig-zag path, and madly catch up a bunch of dripping tangle, and kick a hole in the moist sand, and presently find that our “Balmorals” are ancle-deep in the brine of a nimble wave. And now I descry a faint purplish hue upon the red beach which lies at the foot of Culver. To-morrow, we will breakfast early, and hunt up a score of pebbles before the day grows hot. [3] “Mémoires de l’Académie des Sciences.” Anno, 1721. CHAPTER VIII. PNEUMATICS AND HYDRAULICS.—POWER OF THE WIND.—POWER OF THE WAVES, AND VELOCITY ACQUIRED BY THE WATER.—OCCASIONAL HEIGHT OF TIDES.—TIDAL WAVE.—CURRENTS.—TIDAL PHENOMENA ON THE ISLE OF WIGHT.—VARIATIONS IN THE COAST-LINE.