346 HISTORY OF 



Waters also are supplied in healthful abundance, 

 to support life, and assist vegetation. Mountains 

 arise to diversify the prospect, and give a current 

 to the stream. Seas extend from one continent to 

 the other, replenished with animals that may be 

 turned to human support; and also serving to 

 enrich the earth with a sufficiency of vapour. 

 Breezes fly along the surface of the fields, to pro- 

 mote health and vegetation. The coolness of the 

 evening invites to rest ; and the freshness of the 

 morning renews for labour. 



Such are the delights of the habitation that has 

 been assigned to man ; without any one of these 

 he must have been wretched, and none of these 

 could his own industry have supplied. But while 

 many of his wants are thus kindly furnished on 

 the one hand, there are numberless inconveniencies 

 to excite his industry on the other. This habita- 

 tion, though provided with all the conveniencies 

 of air, pasturage, and water, is but a desert place 

 without human cultivation. The lowest animal 

 finds more conveniencies in the wilds of nature, 

 than he who boasts himself their lord. The whirl- 

 wind, the inundation, and all the asperities of the 

 air, are peculiarly terrible to man, who knows 

 their consequences, and at a distance dreads 

 their approach. The earth itself, where human 

 art has not pervaded, puts on a frightful gloomy 

 appearance. The forests are dark and tangled ; 

 the meadows overgrown with rank weeds ; and 

 the brooks stray without 'a determined channel. 

 Nature, that has been kind to every lower order 

 of beings, has been quite neglectful with regard 



