DUST. 27 



process of denudation would be accelerated a thousand fold and 

 the earth long since have become a flat planet like Mars, where, 

 it is said, the mountains were worn down ages ago, until now 

 the highest elevations are only a few hundred feet above the 

 general plain and throw no shadows. 



Such, in brief, are some of the ends that dust serves in the 

 economy of nature and the fearful consequences to all forms of 

 life were it banished from space. We may learn from this 

 that no fact in nature is insignificant, but has its relative value 

 like a cypher in a number, which is essential to the same. In the 

 action and reaction of things an equilibrium is maintained and 

 a marvellous system of equity or compensation upheld, that 

 must strike the most superficial observer with wonder, and the 

 thoughtful with the realit}' of the conclusion that, in the last 

 analysis, mind moves matter for present and remote purposes, 

 and that blind chance, or the fortuitous clashing of atoms, has 

 not the potency and power to evolve anything upon which we may 

 reckon without being put into a state of intellectual confusion, 

 against which we are taught to pray least we be finally worse 

 confounded. 



