88 FOOTNOTES FROM 



the Nile; its rich alluvial soil has been brought down 

 by the swollen waters of the sacred river from the moun- 

 tains of Abyssinia, where it was formed, perhaps, by the 

 agency of lichens and other Alpine plants, and precipi- 

 tated in its present form over the barren sands of the 

 Lybian desert. And who knows how much of the tro- 

 pical fertility and luxuriance of the vast plains, which 

 stretch onwards from the bases of the Andes and the 

 Himalayas, may be owing to countless generations of 

 lichens, working ceaselessly far up on the inaccessible 

 summits, amid the icy rigour and sterility of an Arctic 

 climate. This is not an extravagant supposition; we 

 see every day the wonderful power of little things; and 

 we find that the most gigantic results are often depen- 

 dent upon agencies minute and insignificant in their in- 

 dividual state, but irresistible in an aggregate of count- 

 less myriads. It is a sublime truth, and one worthy of 

 universal acceptation, that even in the smallest and most 

 apparently useless productions, the intelligent eye will 

 often behold some of the most splendid manifestations 

 of God's inscrutable wisdom and gracious goodness. The 

 bleak sterility of these lofty regions, where the lichens 

 perform their untiring operations under circumstances 

 where we should naturally suppose life and organization 

 alike impossible, is yet the means of preserving the fer- 

 tility of mighty territories which would otherwise become 

 deserts ! 



The student of nature who has examined these humble 

 plants with sufficient attention, must have been often 

 struck with wonder and admiration at the peculiar fit- 

 ness which they display for the work to which they have 



