CHAP. XXL BEAUTY FOR ASHES. 359 



selves are, as it were, the ashes of a long-continued and 

 universal conflagration. But during the long geological 

 periods, by the silent agency of vegetable life working 

 in unison with the sunshine, the work of the fire has 

 been partially undone, and a considerable amount of 

 combustible matter has been slowly rescued from the 

 wreck of the first conflagration. Whatever now exists 

 on the earth unburnt is owing to the wonderful co- 

 operation of plant life and solar light. These two forces 

 have given to us all the beauty which now spreads over 

 the ashes of the world. 



Nay, the very ashes of the earth themselves contribute 

 in the most marvellous manner to its beauty. How 

 much does the scenery of our world owe to its 

 picturesque rocks, and sandy deserts, and lonely seas, 

 which, as we have seen, are but the ashes of the prim- 

 eval fire ! What wonderful beauty God has brought out 

 of water ! It is strange to think of water being the 

 ashes of a conflagration the snow on the mountain- 

 top, the foam of the waterfall, the cloud of glory in the 

 heavens, the dew-drop in the eye of the daisy. With- 

 out the intervention of vegetable life at ail, God has thus 

 directly, from the objects themselves, given beauty for 

 ashes. He might have made these ashes of our globe 

 as repulsive to the sight as the blackened relics of forest 

 and plain, over which the prairie fire has swept, while, 

 at the same time, they might have subserved all their 

 ends and uses. But He has, instead, clothed them with 

 incomparable majesty and loveliness, so that they min- 

 ister most richly to our admiration and enjoyment ; and 



