A HISTORY OF 



blessings continued with unceasing circula- 

 tion. This earth, however, is not to be sup- 

 posed entirely pure, but is mixed with much 

 stony and gravelly matter, from the layers 

 lying immediately beneath it. It generally 

 happens, that the soil is fertile in proportion 

 to the quantity that this putrefied mould bears 

 to the gravelly mixture ; and as the former 

 predominates, so far is the vegetation upon it 

 more luxuriant. It is this external covering 

 that supplies man with all the true riches he 

 enjoys. He may bring up gold and jewels 

 from greater depths ; but they are merely the 

 toys of a capricious being, things upon which 

 he has placed an imaginary value, and for 

 which fools alone part with the more substan- 

 tial blessings of life. " It is this earth," says 

 Pliny ," "that, like a kind mother, receives us 

 at our birth, and sustains us when born." It 

 is this alone, of all the elements around us, 

 that is never found an enemy to man. The 

 body of waters deluge him with rains, oppress 

 him with hail, and drown him with inunda- 

 tions. The air rushes in storms, prepares the 

 tempest, or lights up the volcano ; but the 

 earth,- gentle and indulgent, ever subservient 

 to the wants of man, spreads his walks with 

 flowers, and his table with plenty; returns 

 with interest every good committed to her 

 care ; and though she produces the poison, 

 she still supplies the antidote ; though con- 

 stantly teased more to furnish the luxuries of 

 man than his necessities, yet, even to the last, 

 she continues her kind indulgence, and, when 

 life is over, she piously covers his remains in 

 her bosom. 



This external and fruitful layer which co- 

 vers the earth, is, as was said, in a state of 

 continual change. Vegetables, which are 

 naturally fixed and rooted to the same place, 

 receive their adventitious nourishment from 

 the surrounding earth and water; animals, 

 which change from place to place, are sup- 

 ported by these, or by each other. Both, 

 however, having for a time enjoyed a life 

 adapted to their nature, give back to the 

 earth those spoils, which they had borrowed 

 for a very short space, yet still to be quick- 

 ened again into fresh existence. But the de- 

 posits they make are of very dissimilar kinds, 



* Plinii Historia Naturalis, lib. ii. cap. 63. 



and the earth is very differently enriched by 

 their continuance; those countries, that have 

 for a long time supported men and other ani- 

 mals, having been observed to become every 

 day more barren ; while, on the contrary, 

 those desolate places, in which vegetables 

 only are abundantly produced, are known to 

 be possessed of amazing fertility. "In regions 

 which are uninhabited," 1 " says Mr. Buffbn, 

 " where the forests arc not cut down, and 

 where animals do not feed upon the plants, 

 the bed of vegetable earth is constantly in- 

 creasing. In all woods, and even in those 

 Avhich are often cut, there is a layer of earth, 

 of six or eight inches thick, which has been 

 formed by the leaves, branches, and bark, 

 which fall and rot upon the ground. I have 

 frequently observed on a Roman way, which 

 crosses Burgundy for a long extent, that there 

 is a bed of black earth, of more than a toot 

 thick, gathered over the stony pavement, on 

 which several trees, of a very considerable 

 size, are supported. This I have found to be 

 nothing else than an earth formed by decayed 

 leaves and branches, which have been con- 

 verted by time into a black soil. Now, as 

 vegetables draw much more of their nourish- 

 ment from the air and water than they do 

 from the earth, it must follow, that in rotting 

 upon the ground, they must give more to the 

 soil than they have taken from it. Hence, 

 therefore, in woods kept a long time without 

 cutting, the soil below increases to a con- 

 siderable depth ; and such we actually find 

 the soil in those American wilds, where the 

 forests have been undisturbed for ages. But 

 it is otherwise where men and animals have 

 long subsisted : for as they make a conside- 

 rable consumption of wood and plants, both 

 for firing and other uses, they take more from 

 the earth than they return to it ; it follows, 

 therefore, that the bed of vegetable earth, in 

 an inhabited country,must be always diminish- 

 ing; and must at length resemble the eoil of 

 Arabia Petrea, and other provinces of the 

 East, which having been long inhabited, 

 are now become plains of salt and sand ; the 

 fixed salt always remaining, while the other 

 volatile parts have flown away." 



If from this external surface we descend 



b Buifon, vol. i. p. 353. 



