The Storm

by Daniel Defoe

  This is what I quote them for, and this is all my Argument demands; the deepest Search into the Region of Cause and Consequence, has found out just enough to leave the wisest Philosopher in the dark,3 to bewilder his Head, and drown his Understanding. You raise a Storm in Nature by the very Inquiry; and at last, to be rid of you, she confesses the Truth, and tells you, It is not in Me, you must go Home and ask my Father.

  Whether then it be the Motion of Air, and what that Air is, which as yet is undefin’d, whether it is a Dilation, a previous Contraction, and then violent Extension as in Gun-Powder, whether the Motion is Direct, Circular, or Oblique, whether it be an Exhalation repuls’d by the Middle Region, and the Antiperistasis of that Part of the Heavens which is set as a Wall of Brass to bind up the Atmosphere, and keep it within its proper Compass for the Functions of Respiration, Condensing and Rarifying, without which Nature would be all in Confusion; whatever are their efficient Causes, ’tis not much to the immediate Design.

  ’Tis apparent, that God Almighty, whom the Philosophers care as little as possible to have any thing to do with, seems to have reserv’d this, as one of those Secrets in Nature which should more directly guide them to himself.

  Not but that a Philosopher may be a Christian, and some of the best of the Latter have been the best of the Former, as Vossius, Mr. Boyle, Sir Walter Raleigh, Lord Verulam, Dr. Harvey, and others; and I wish I could say Mr. Hobbs, for ’twas Pity there should lie any just Exceptions to the Piety of a Man, who had so few to his General Knowledge, and an exalted Spirit in Philosophy.4

  When therefore I say the Philosophers do not care to concern God himself in the Search after Natural Knowledge; I mean, as it concerns Natural Knowledge, meerly as such; for ’tis a Natural Cause they seek, from a General Maxim, That all Nature has its Cause within it self: ’tis true, ’tis the Darkest Part of the Search, to trace the Chain backward; to begin at the Consequence, and from thence hunt Counter,5 as we may call it, to find out the Cause: ’twould be much easier if we could begin at the Cause, and trace it to all its Consequences.

  I make no Question, the Search would be equally to the Advantage of Science, and the Improvement of the World; for without Doubt there are some Consequences of known Causes which are not yet discover’d, and I am as ready to believe there are yet in Nature some Terra Incognita6 both as to Cause and Consequence too.

  In this Search after Causes, the Philosopher, tho’ he may at the same Time be a very good Christian, cares not at all to meddle with his Maker: the Reason is plain; We may at any time resolve all things into Infinite Power, and we do allow that the Finger of Infinite is the First Mighty Cause of Nature her self: but the Treasury of Immediate Cause is generally committed to Nature; and if at any Time we are driven to look beyond her, ’tis because we are out of the way: ’tis not because it is not in her, but because we cannot find it.

  Two Men met in the Middle of a great Wood; One was searching for a Plant which grew in the Wood, the Other had lost himself in the Wood, and wanted to get out: The Latter rejoyc’d when thro’ the Trees he saw the open Country: but the Other Man’s Business was not to get out, but to find what he look’d for: yet this Man no more undervalued the Pleasantness of the Champion Country7 than the other.

  Thus in Nature the Philosopher’s Business is not to look through Nature, and come to the vast open Field of Infinite Power; his Business is in the Wood; there grows the Plant he looks for; and ’tis there he must find it. Philosophy’s a-ground if it is forc’d to any further Enquiry. The Christian begins just where the Philosopher ends; and when the Enquirer turns his Eyes up to Heaven, Farewel Philosopher; ’tis a Sign he can make nothing of it here.

  David was a good Man, the Scripture gives him that Testimony; but I am of the Opinion, he was a better King than a Scholar, more a Saint than a Philosopher: and it seems very proper to judge that David was upon the Search of Natural Causes, and found himself puzzled as to the Enquiry, when he finishes the Enquiry with two pious Ejaculations, When I view the Heavens the Works of thy Hands, the Moon and the Stars which thou hast made; then I say, what is Man!8 David may very rationally be suppos’d to be searching the Causes, Motions, and Influences of Heavenly Bodies; and finding his Philosophy a-ground, and the Discovery not to answer his Search, he turns it all to a pious Use, recognizes Infinite Power, and applies it to the Exstasies and Raptures of his Soul, which were always employ’d in the Charm of exalted Praise.

  Thus in another Place we find him dissecting the Womb of his Mother, and deep in the Study of Anatomy; but having, as it may be well supposed, no Help from Johan Remelini, or of the Learned Riolanus,9 and other Anatomists, famous for the most exquisite Discovery of human Body, and all the Vessels of Life, with their proper Dimensions and Use, all David could say to the Matter was, Good Man, to look up to Heaven, and admire what he could not understand, Psal. – I was fearfully and wonderfully made, &c.10

  This is very Good, and well becomes a Pulpit; but what’s all this to a Philosopher? ’Tis not enough for him to know that God has made the Heavens, the Moon, and the Stars, but must inform himself where he has plac’d them, and why there; and what their Business, what their Influences, their Functions, and the End of their Being. Tis not enough for an Anatomist to know that he is fearfully and wonderfully made in the lowermost Part of the Earth, but he must see those lowermost Parts; search into the Method Nature proceeds upon in the performing the Office appointed, must search the Steps she takes, the Tools she works by; and in short, know all that the God of Nature has permitted to be capable of Demonstration.

  And it seems a just Authority for our Search, that some things are so plac’d in Nature by a Chain of Causes and Effects, that upon a diligent Search we may find out what we look for: To search after what God has in his Sovereignty thought fit to conceal, may be criminal, and doubtless is so; and the Fruitlesness of the Enquiry is generally Part of the Punishment to a vain Curiosity: but to search after what our Maker has not hid, only cover’d with a thin Veil of Natural Obscurity, and which upon our Search is plain to be read, seems to be justified by the very Nature of the thing, and the Possibility of the Demonstration is an Argument to prove the Lawfulness of the Enquiry.

  The Design of this Digression, is, in short, That as where Nature is plain to be search’d into, and Demonstration easy, the Philosopher is allow’d to seek for it; so where God has, as it were, laid his Hand upon any Place, and Nature presents us with an universal Blank, we are therein led as naturally to recognize the Infinite Wisdom and Power of the God of Nature, as David was in the Texts before quoted.

  And this is the Case here; the Winds are some of those Inscrutables of Nature, in which humane Search has not yet been able to arrive at any Demonstration.

  ‘The Winds,’ says the Learned Mr. Bohun, ‘are generated in the Intermediate Space between the Earth and the Clouds, either by Rarefaction or Repletion, and sometimes haply by pressure of Clouds, Elastical Virtue of the Air, &c. from the Earth or Seas, as by Submarine or Subterraneal Eruption or Descension or Resilition from the middle Region.’11

  All this, though no Man is more capable of the Enquiry than this Gentleman, yet to the Demonstration of the thing, amounts to no more than what we had before, and still leaves it as Abstruse and Cloudy to our Understanding as ever.

  Not but that I think my self bound in Duty to Science in General, to pay a just Debt to the Excellency of Philosophical Study, in which I am a meer Junior, and hardly any more than an Admirer; and therefore I cannot but allow that the Demonstrations made of Rarefaction and Dilatation are extraordinary; and that by Fire and Water Wind may be rais’d in a close Room, as the Lord Verulam made Experiment in the Case of his Feathers.12

  But that therefore all the Causes of Wind are from the Influences of the Sun upon vaporous Matter first Exhal’d, which being Dilated are oblig’d to possess themselves of more Space than before, and consequently make the Particles fly before them; this does not seem to be a sufficient Demonstration of Wind: for this, to my
weak Apprehension, would rather make a Blow like Gun-Powder than a rushing forward; at best this is indeed a probable Conjecture, but admits not of Demonstration equal to other Phánomena in Nature.

  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;13 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;14 ’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,15 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.

  We read in the Scripture of Two Great Storms; One past, and the Other to come. Whether the last be not Allegorical rather than Prophetical, I shall not busie my self to determine.

  The First was when God caused a strong Wind to blow upon the Face of the Delug’d World; to put a stop to the Flood, and reduce the Waters to their proper Channel.

  I wish our Naturalists would explain that Wind to us, and tell us which way it blew, or how it is possible that any direct Wind could cause the Waters to ebb; for to me it seems, that the Deluge being universal, that Wind which blew the Waters from one Part must blow them up in another.

  Whether it was not some perpendicular Gusts that might by their Force separate the Water and the Earth, and cause the Water driven from off the Land to subside by its own Pressure.

  I shall dive no farther into that mysterious Deluge, which has some things in it which recommend the Story rather to our Faith than Demonstration.

  The Other Storm I find in the Scripture is in the God shall rain upon the Wicked, Plagues, Fire, and a horrible Tempest.6 What this shall be, we wait to know; and happy are they who shall be secured from its Effects.

  Histories are full of Instances of violent Tempests and Storms in sundry particular Places. What that was, which mingled with such violent Lightnings set the Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah on fire,17 remains to me yet undecided: nor am I satisfied the Effect it had on the Waters of the Lake, which are to this Day call’d the Dead Sea, are such as some fabulous Authors have related, and as Travellers take upon them to say.

  CHAPTER II

  Of the Opinion of the Ancients, That this Island was more Subject to Storms than other Parts of the World

  I am not of Opinion with the early Ages of the World, when these Islands were first known, that they were the most Terrible of any Part of the World for Storms and Tempests.

  Cambden tells us,1 The Britains were distinguish’d from all the World by unpassable Seas and terrible Northern Winds, which made the Albion Shores dreadful to Sailors; and this part of the World was therefore reckoned the utmost Bounds of the Northern known Land, beyond which none had ever sailed: and quotes a great variety of ancient Authors to this purpose; some of which I present as a Specimen.

  Et Penitus Toto Divisos Orbe Britannos.

  Britains’ disjoyn’d from all the well known World.2

  Quem Littus adusta,

  Horrescit Lybiá, ratibusq; Impervia∗ Thule

  Ignotumq; Fretum.3

  Claud.

  And if the Notions the World then had were true, it would be very absurd for us who live here to pretend Miracles in any Extremes of Tempests; since by what the Poets of those Ages flourish’d about stormy Weather, was the native and most proper Epithet of the Place:

  Belluosus qui remotis

  Obstrepit Oceanus Britannis.4

  Hor.

  Nay, some are for placing the Nativity of the Winds here-abouts, as if they had been all generated here, and the Confluence of Matter had made this Island its General Rendezvouz.

  But I shall easily show, that there are several Places in the World far better adapted to be the General Receptacle or Centre of Vapours, to supply a Fund of Tempestuous Matter, than England; as particularly the vast Lakes of North America: Of which afterwards.

  And yet I have two Notions, one real, one imaginary, of the Reasons which gave the Ancients such terrible Apprehensions of this Part of the World; which of late we find as Habitable and Navigable as any of the rest.

  The real Occasion I suppose thus: That before the Multitude and Industry of Inhabitants prevail’d to the managing, enclosing, and improving the Country, the vast Tract of Land in this Island which continually lay open to the Flux of the Sea, and to the Inundations of Land-Waters, were as so many standing Lakes; from whence the Sun continually exhaling vast quantities of moist Vapours, the Air could not but be continually crowded with all those Parts of necessary Matter to which we ascribe the Original of Winds, Rains, Storms, and the like.

  He that is acquainted with the situation of England, and can reflect on the vast Quantities of flat Grounds, on the Banks of all our navigable Rivers, and the Shores of the Sea, which Lands at Least lying under Water every Spring-Tide, and being thereby continually full of moisture, were like a stagnated standing body of Water brooding Vapours in the Interval of the Tide, must own that at least a fifteenth part of the whole Island may come into this Denomination.

  Let him that doubts the Truth of this, examine a little the Particulars; let him stand upon Shooters-Hill in Kent,5 and view the Mouth of the River Thames, and consider what a River it must be when none of the Marshes on either side were wall’d in from the Sea, and when the Sea without all question flow’d up to the Foot of the Hills on either Shore, and up every Creek, where he must allow is now dry Land on either side the River for two Miles in breadth at least, sometimes three or four, for above forty Miles on both sides the River.

  Let him farther reflect, how all these Parts lay when, as our ancient Histories relate, the Danish Fleet came up almost to Hartford,6 so that all that Range of fresh Marshes which reach for twenty five Miles in length, from War
e to the River Thames, must be a Sea.

  In short, Let any such considering Person imagine the vast Tract of Marsh-Lands on both sides the River Thames, to Harwich on the Essex side, and to Whitstable on the Kentish side, the Levels of Marshes up the Stour from Sandwich to Canterbury, the whole Extent of Lowgrounds commonly call’d Rumney-Marsh,7 from Hythe to Winchelsea, and up the Banks of the Rother; all which put together, and being allow’d to be in one place cover’d with Water, what a Lake wou’d it be suppos’d to make? According to the nicest Calculations I can make, it cou’d not amount to less than 500000 Acres of Land.

  The Isle of Ely, with the Flats up the several Rivers from Yarmouth to Norwich, Beccles, &c. the continu’d Levels in the several Counties of Norfolk, Cambridge, Suffolk, Huntingdon, Northampton, and Lincoln, I believe do really contain as much Land as the whole County of Norfolk; and ’tis not many Ages since these Counties were universally one vast Moras or Lough, and the few solid parts wholly unapproachable: insomuch that the Town of Ely it self was a Receptacle for the Malecontents of the Nation, where no reasonable Force cou’d come near to dislodge them.8

  ’Tis needless to reckon up twelve or fourteen like Places in England, as the Moores in Somersetshire, the Flat-shores in Lancashire, Yorkshire, and Durham, the like in Hampshire and Sussex; and in short, on the Banks of every Navigable River.