1816.] 



^ 3Iorning''s Walk from London to -Keie. 



dow towards an angle formed by a rude 

 inlet and the Thames, which was nin- 

 iiing smoothly towards the sea at the 

 pace of four miles an hour. In viewing- 

 tlie beautiful jirocess of Nature, pre- 

 sented by a majestic river, we cease to 

 wonder that priestcraft has often suc- 

 ceeded in teaching nations to consider 

 livers as of divine origin, and as living 

 emblems of onniipotence. Ignorance, 

 ■whose constant error it is to look oidy 

 to the last term of every series of causes, 

 ami whicii charges Impiety on all who 

 venture to ascend one term higher, and 

 Atheism on all who dare to explore 

 several terms (though every series im- 

 plies a first term), would easily be per- 

 suaded by a crafty priesthood to 

 consider a beneficent river as a tan- 

 gible branch of the God-head. But 

 we now know tliat the waters which 

 flow down a river, are but a portion 

 of the rains and snows which, having 

 fallen near its source, are returning 

 to tlie ocean, there to rise again and 

 re-perform the same circle of vapours, 

 clouds, rains, and rivers. What a pro- 

 cess of fertilization, and how still more 

 luxuriant would have been this vi- 

 cinitj', if man had not levelled the trees 

 and carried away the crops of vege- 

 tation ! What a place of shelter would 

 thus have been afforded to tribes of 

 aojphibias, wliose accumulated remains 

 often surprise geologists, though ne- 

 cessarily consequent on the fall of crops 

 of vegetation on each other, near undis- 

 turbed banks of rivers. Happily, in 

 Britain, our coal-pits, or niiiicralized 

 forests, have supplied the place of our 

 living woods; or man, regardless of the 

 fitness of all the parts to the perfection 

 ©f every natural result, might here, 

 as iu other long-peopled countries, ig- 

 norantly have thwarted the course of 

 Nature by cutting down the timber, 

 which, acting on the electricity of the 

 clouds, aOccts their density, and causes 

 them to fall in fertilizing showers. 

 Such has been the fate of all the coun- 

 tries famous in antiquity. Persia, Sy- 

 ria, Arabia, parts of Turkey, and the 

 Burbary coast, liave been rendered 

 arid deserls by this inadvertency. The 

 clouds from the western ocean would 

 long .since have passed over England 

 without disturbance from the conduct- 

 ing powers of leaves of trees, or blades 

 of grass, if oiM- coal-works had not ssvcd 

 oiir natural conductors; while this 

 J'h'irncs, the agent of so much abun- 

 dai f:e and so much wealth, might, in 

 tiial ease, have become a .shallow bl'ook; 

 i lo.vTHLY Mao. No. '.Iti'J. 



217 



like the once equally famed Jordan, 

 Granicus, or Ilyssus. 



I'he dingy alniospliere of London 

 smoke, whicli I had measured so accu- 

 rately on Putney Heath, presented it- 

 self again over the woods of Chiswick 

 Grove, rcmindiitg me of the cares of 

 the busy world, and producing a pain- 

 ful contrast to the tranquillity of nature, 

 to the silently glidingThames, and to the 

 unimpassioned simplicif y of the vegetable 

 creation. Man, I reflected, brings upon 

 himself a thousand calamities as con- 

 sequences of his artifices and pride; and 

 then, overlooking his own follies, gravely 

 investigates the origin of what he calls 

 EVIL — HE compromises every iiaiural 

 pleasure to acquire fame among tran- 

 sient beings, wlio forget him nightly in 

 sleep, and eternally in death ; and seeks 

 to render his najne celebrated among 

 posterity, though it has no identity with 

 his person, and tliough posterity andL 

 hjmself can have no contemporaneous 

 feeling — Hii deprives himself, and all 

 around him, of every passing enjoyment, 

 to accumulate wealth, that he may pur- 

 chase other men's labour, in the vain 

 hope of adding tlicir happiness to his 

 own — HE omits to make efiective laws 

 to protect the poor against the opjn'es^ 

 sions of the rich, and then wears out his 

 existence under the fear of becoming 

 poor, and being the victim of his own 

 neglect and injustice — he arms himself 

 with murderous weapons, and on the 

 lightest instigations practises minder as 

 a science, follows this science as a regu- 

 lar profession, and honors its chiefs above 

 benefactors and philosophers, in propor- 

 tion to the (jiiantity of blood they have 

 shed, or the mischiefs they have perpe- 

 trated — HE revels in luxury and glut- 

 tony, and then complains of the diseases 

 which grow out of repletion — he tries in 

 all things to counteract, or improve the 

 provisions of nature, and then afflicts 

 himself at his disappointments — he mul- 

 tiplies the chances against his owa 

 health and life, by his numerous arli- 

 fices, and then wonders at the frequency 

 of their fatal results — he shuts his eyes 

 against the volume of truth, presented 

 by Nature, and, vainly considering th.at 

 all was made for him, founds on this false 

 assumption various doubts in regard fqi 

 the justice of eternal causation — he in- 

 terdicts the enjoyments of all other crea- 

 tures, and, regarding the world as his pro- 

 perty, in mere wantonness destroys my- 

 riads on whom have been lavished beau- 

 ties and perfections— ^iiE is the selfish 

 aiid jMCreiles.'j tyrant of all animated 

 r i" nature. 



