132 THE CHRISTIAN NATURALIST. 



higher orders, we may see in the beneficial change that 

 has taken place in modern times, a sufficient proof of 

 our advancement as a nation, and of the favors which 

 the bounty of heaven heaps upon us. Let us contrast 

 those countries of Europe, as for instance Russia, and 

 Poland, where the peasantry still live upon their hard 

 black rye bread, with that of our own, where such food 

 is very rarely to be seen ; or let us cast our eyes over 

 those numerous tribes of the earth where the bulk of 

 the inhabitants still live upon their roots, their acorns » 

 or even their *baked balls of clay ; and we shall need 

 no further argument to prove that England is the hap- 

 piest country upon the globe, and its constitution, with 

 all its imagined ills, the fruitful source of comforts 

 which no other nation upon earth, so richly enjoys. 



There is a remarkable analogy observable between 

 the improvements of agriculture and the growth of 

 the grain which the fields produce at this season. 

 The advances which each have made to perfection 

 are very slow and gradual, and our Lord has taught 



* See a curious account of the Ottomacos, a tribe of Indians 

 living near the Orinoco, whose chief diet consists of an unc- 

 tuous clay made into balls and baked. — Humboldt's Tubleaux de 

 la Nature. 



