DRAINAGE. 63 



ment ; arid, if some allowance is to be made for the pleasure 

 enjoyed in this display of the owner s vanity, and gratification 

 of his pride, it must be regarded as a pleasure not of a high char 

 acter, and almost purely selfish. On the other hand, capital ex 

 pended in the redemption of land from the sea, or in the im 

 provement of waste lands, becomes at once recuperative ; the 

 crops soon give a greater or less return ; production quickens and 

 increases production ; power in this case, as in many others, 

 grows by the action of its own energies ; useful labor is called 

 out ; human food is increased, and human comfort is provided 

 for. The eye of the observing traveller rests with grateful 

 delight upon these beneficent triumphs of human art and in 

 dustry. The performers of such good and, oftentimes, grand 

 works, in the works themselves, erect to their own honor mon 

 uments far more glorious, in the estimation of true philosophy, 

 than equestrian statues, or marble mausoleums, or even the 

 mighty pyramids of Cairo the altars where human toil and life 

 were recklessly and criminally sacrificed to despotic pride, and 

 to an ambition of renown which has no place among those vir 

 tues which truly adorn and elevate our nature ; a desire of a 

 vain immortality, which, in this case, seems to have met with a 

 remarkable moral retribution, in that even the names of the 

 founders of these wonderful erections remain beyond the de 

 ciphering of human skill. 



XCVIII. DRAINAGE. 



I come now to speak of one of the cardinal improvements in 

 English husbandry. I mean the drainage of the soil. 



1. THE IMPORTANCE OF DRAINAGE. It happens with water, 

 as with that other most important and useful element in nature, 

 fire, that, while under certain conditions it is indispensable and 

 most beneficial, under others it becomes prejudicial and destruc 

 tive. Water is an essential element in vegetation, and, supplied 

 under proper and favorable circumstances, is most conducive to 



