260 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 



reference to man in a state of society. Such are 

 the power of the earth to increase its produce 

 under the influence of cultivation, and the ne- 

 cessary existence of property in land, in order 

 that this cultivation may be advantageously 

 applied ; the rise, under such circumstances, of 

 a surplus produce, of a quantity of subsistence 

 exceeding the wants of the cultivators alone ; 

 and the consequent possibility of inequalities of 

 rank and of all the arrangements of civil society. 

 These are all parts of the constitution of the 

 earth. But these would all remain mere idle 

 possibilities, if the nature of man had not a cor- 

 responding direction. If man had not a social 

 and economical tendency, a disposition to con- 

 gregate and co-operate, to distribute possessions 

 and offices among the members of the community, 

 to make and obey and enforce laws, the earth 

 would in vain be ready to respond to the care of 

 the husbandman. Must we not then suppose that 

 this attribute of the earth was bestowed upon 

 it by Him who gave to man those corresponding 

 attributes, through which the apparent niggard- 

 liness of the soil is the source of general comfort 

 and security, of polity and law ? Must we not 

 suppose that He who created the soil also in- 

 spired man with those social desires and feelings 

 which produce cities and states, laws and insti- 

 tutions, arts and civilization ; and that thus the 

 apparently inert mass of earth is a part of the 



