THE HEDGE-BANK. 39 



To sow a field, to plant a wood, are works for 

 man to accomplish at certain times, and at stated 

 intervals, being distinct works and complete in 

 themselves. But, to speak once for all, and, by a 

 word, to provide that the whole created world 

 shall flourish and be perpetuated for countless 

 ages, this is the work of God, carried out some- 

 times by humble agency and inconsiderable in- 

 struments, but on that account the more certainly 

 the handy work of an Almighty Being. 



To illustrate my meaning : the willow tree is 

 adapted for growing on the banks of rivers, where 

 its quickly formed roots, while they meet with 

 nothing to retard their progress, serve to prevent 

 the river-banks from being washed away. They 

 produce seeds furnished with a light feathery ap- 

 pendage, which, whether the wind blows up the 

 stream, or the current flow down, will be carried 

 by one or the other to some convenient place of 

 growth. If a branch be broken off during a flood, 

 and be carried to a distant spot, wherever it is 

 washed on shore, there it takes root. It needs no 

 planting, for its own weight will bury it deeply 

 enough in the mud in which it is driven, no 

 watering, for the stream which brought it to the 

 spot where it lies will continue to provide it with 

 moisture ; it matters not, even, which end be 

 buried in the earth, for roots will spring from any 

 part which touches the soil. 



The seeds of the Ash and Sycamore trees are fur- 

 nished with light expanded borders, which readily 

 catch the wind, so that when they are blown off, 

 they are usually carried to a considerable distance 

 from the trunk of the tree on which they grow. 

 Neither of these trees casts its seeds as soon as 



