48 THE HARMONIES OF NATUEE. 



The circumstance that the fruits of the earth are unequally 

 distributed over its surface, that each zone, each country, brings 

 its peculiar produce to the market of the world, is likewise of 

 vast importance to the improvement of the human race. If man 

 had everywhere found united in a small space all that is neces- 

 sary for the maintenance and enjoyment of life, he would never 

 have emerged from the low condition of the savage, who finds all 

 he requires for the gratification of his simple wants in his native 

 forest or in the neighbouring sea. 



But, with a wise economy, the Almighty has given to one land 

 the fruits of Ceres and to another mineral wealth, to the tropical 

 regions the sugar-cane and the coffee-tree, to Italy the silk- worm 

 and the vine, to China the tea-plant, to the frozen north its huge 

 cetaceans and costly furs, that all the nations of the earth might 

 be united by the bonds of commerce, and the intellectual powers 

 of man roused to exertion by the stimulus of want or the love 

 of gain. 



