348 INATTENTION TO PROVIDENCE. 



artisan may eat his bread with all thankfulness and 

 humility of heart, solace his labours and mitigate 

 his fatigue by the grateful flavour and juices of 

 fruits purchased at the stall ; but he sees nothing 

 of the machinery, the gradual elaborations of Na- 

 ture, nor can he be conversant with the multiplicity 

 of influences and events which are requisite to 

 bring them to his hand. He who lives in the coun- 

 try knows that an omnipotent impulse must be 

 constantly in action ; he may till his land, and 

 scatter his corn, but the early and latter rain must 

 soften his furrows ; the snow, as wool, must cover 

 the soil ; the hoarfrost, like ashes, lighten his 

 glebe ; the sunshine animate the sprouting shoot ; 

 and winds evaporate noxious moisture ; insects and 

 blights, that hover around, or circulate through the 

 air, must be guided away, or our labours become 

 abortive, or are consumed ; we see the bud, the 

 blossom, leaf, and germ, all progressively advance, 

 to afford plenty or yield us enjoyment ; we see 

 these things accomplished by the influencing inter- 

 positions of a beneficent Providence, and in no way 

 effected by the machinery or artifices of our own 

 hands ; and it should operate more powerfully in 

 disposing those who witness them to particular 

 resignation and gratitude, than others who cannot 

 behold them, but view the ingenuity of man as the 

 agent and means of his prosperity ; yet how it 

 happens that this principle is not in more active 

 operation within us, I cannot perceive. 



Every age has been the dupe of empiricism ; 



