CANAL. 97 



In my opinion, the period of the greatest lui- 

 heolthlness of a coantry, is the intermediate state 

 be':v cen a state of nature and a state of cultivation- 

 Til'? le'Irog; of trees produces vegetable decompo- 

 sitia-.f, and opens the earth and the water to the 

 action of solar heat. Evaporation and exhala- 

 tion are augmented, and poisons which were be- 

 fore inert and inactive, are excited into deleterious 

 activity. The Python of the ancient mythology 

 was intended to represent the terrible miasmata of 

 this or an analogous state. Ovid thus speaks of 

 the events which immediately followed the deluge. 



Ergo ubi diluvio tellus lutulenta recent! 

 Solibus sethereis altoquo recanduit sstu, 

 Edidlt enumeras species : partimque fiffura? 

 Ret'ilit antiquas : partiin nova monstra creavjt. 

 Ilia quidem nollet, sed te qnoque, maxime Pvthor, 

 Turn genuit ; populisqne novis, incognite serpens, 

 Terror eras : tanturn spatii de monte tetiebas. 



The influence of cultivation was personified in 

 Apollo, who slew the serpent. 



Although the clearing of a country does not! 

 create new beings yet it multiplies their number, 

 and augments their power of good and evil. The 

 food which is furnished to the voracity of insects, 

 and the heat which is administered to their pro- 

 pagation and growth, are increased by settlement. 

 ]Maa — the useful creatures by which he is surrour • 



