BOOK OF MATURE LAID OPEN. 19 



evaporated into steam, it puts in play the massy arms 

 of the huge engine. 



But how does it come to pass that water is ren- 

 dered thus serviceable? It is partly owing to the 

 wise manner in which the great Creator distributes 

 it from his treasures, by causing Springs to take 

 their rise in elevated situations, and partly from the 

 general law impressed upon fluids to regain their 

 level, that water is impelled forward in its course, 

 and made to surmount so many obstacles in its pro- 

 gress to the sea, while its suitable consistency fits it 

 for being easily turned aside, and diverted into such 

 other channels as the necessities of man may re- 

 quire. 



If, as might have been expected, Springs had 

 been confined in general to the lower situations of 

 the earth, extensive tracts must have been left un- 

 watered, while plains in their immediate neighbour- 

 hood would have been deprived of their fertility by 

 inundation, or rendered pestilential by stagnant wa- 

 ters pent up without the means of escape. Had 

 water been deprived of that admirable property of 

 rising to its level, how liable would it have been to 

 be obstructed in its progress by every insignificant 

 hillock, or trifling rise of the ground ; and, with re- 

 spect to its consistency, besides being rendered inca- 

 pable of being converted to so many useful purposes, 

 had it been thinner, how would it have answered the 

 purpose of supporting so many burdens, or keep- 

 ing \vithinits bounds; had it been thicker, how would 

 it have been adapted for quenching thirst, or ascend- 

 ing the minute tubes of the vegetable tribe? 



