The Storm: or, a Collection of the most Remarkable Casualties and Disasters which Happen'd in the Late Dreadful Tempest, both by Sea and LandDefoe, Daniel
History
The Storm: or, a Collection of the most Remarkable Casualties and Disasters which Happen'd in the Late Dreadful Tempest, both by Sea and Land
Defoe, Daniel
Storms -- Early works to 1800
And this is all I am upon, _viz._ That this Case has not equal Proofs of
the Natural Causes of it that we meet with in other Cases: The Scripture
seems to confirm this, when it says in one Place, _He holds the Wind in
his Hand_; as if he should mean, Other things are left to the Common
Discoveries of Natural Inquiry, but this is a thing he holds in his own
Hand, and has conceal'd it from the Search of the most Diligent and
Piercing Understanding: This is further confirm'd by the Words of our
Saviour, _The Wind blows where it listeth, and thou hearest the Sound
thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh_; 'tis plainly express'd to
signify that the Causes of the Wind are not equally discover'd by
Natural Enquiry as the rest of Nature is.
If I would carry this Matter on, and travel into the Seas, and Mountains
of _America_, where the Mansones, the Trade-Winds, the Sea-Breezes, and
such Winds as we have little Knowledge of, are more common; it would yet
more plainly appear, _That we hear the Sound, but know not from whence
they come._
Nor is the Cause of their Motion parallel to the Surface of the Earth,
a less Mystery than their real Original, or the Difficulty of their
Generation: and though some People have been forward to prove the
Gravity of the Particles must cause the Motion to be oblique; 'tis plain
it must be very little so, or else Navigation would be impracticable,
and in extroardinary Cases where the Pressure above is perpendicular, it
has been fatal to Ships, Houses, _&c._ and would have terrible Effects
in the World, if it should more frequently be so.
From this I draw only this Conclusion, That the Winds are a Part of the
Works of God by Nature, in which he has been pleased to communicate less
of Demonstration to us than in other Cases; that the Particulars more
directly lead us to Speculations, and refer us to Infinite Power more
than the other Parts of Nature does.
That the Wind is more expressive and adapted to his Immediate Power, as
he is pleas'd to exert it in extraordinary Cases in the World.
That 'tis more frequently made use of as the Executioner of his
Judgments in the World, and extraordinary Events are brought to pass by
it.
From these three Heads we are brought down directly to speak of the
Particular Storm before us; _viz._ The Greatest, the Longest in
Duration, the widest in Extent, of all the Tempests and Storms that
History gives any Account of since the Beginning of Time.
In the further Conduct of the Story, 'twill not be foreign to the
Purpose, nor unprofitable to the Reader, to review the Histories of
ancient Time and remote Countries, and examine in what Manner God has
been pleas'd to execute his Judgments by Storms and Tempests; what kind
of things they have been, and what the Consequences of them; and then
bring down the Parallel to the Dreadful Instance before us.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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