234 INATTENTION TO PROVIDENCE. 



cattle, but the good herbage, which the long residence 

 of water would vitiate or destroy, is saved from injury, 

 and the aquatic and useless plants starved or checked 

 in their growth ; but after great gluts of rain, when the 

 supply of water is greater than can be speedily carried 

 off, it becomes stagnant, and those worms, which cannot 

 burrow beyond its influence, soon perish, and we lose 

 the benefit of these very beneficial creatures. Drainage 

 is therefore one of the most important operations in our 

 agricultural concerns. As by irrigation we turn a 

 quantity of nutritive water over our lands, or by reason 

 of its higher temperature foster the growth of grasses ; 

 so, by draining cold and superfluous moisture off, we 

 promote the growth of valuable vegetation. I would 

 advocate the cause of all creatures, had I the privilege 

 of knowing the excellency of them; not willingly as- 

 signing vague and fanciful claims to excite wonder, or 

 manifest a base pride by any vaunt of superior obser- 

 vation ; but when we see, blind as we are, that all things 

 are formed in justice, mercy, truth, I would tell my tale 

 as a man, glorying as a Christian, and bless the gracious 

 power that permitted me to obtain this knowledge. 



Residing, as I constantly do, in the country, and 

 having been long observant of rural things, and the 

 operations of Infinite Wisdom, through the very feeble 

 organs with which I have been endowed, I have often 

 thought, that we, who are daily made sensible of so 

 many manifestations of creative power and mercy, 

 should be more seriously disposed, more grateful for the 

 beneficences of Providence, than those who live in so- 

 cieties removed from these evidences ; but yet I neither 

 know nor believe that we in any respect give greater 

 proof of this disposition, or are more sensible of the 

 benevolence of an overruling power, than others. The 

 manufacturer by the combination of artful contrivances 

 effects his purposes, and by aid of man's wisdom brings 

 his work to perfection ; the artisan may eat his bread 

 with all thankfulness and humility of heart, solace his 

 labors and mitigate his fatigue by the grateful flavor 

 and juices of fruits purchased at the stall ; but he sees 

 nothing of the machinery, the gradual elaborations of 



