MOUNTAIN AND PLAIN. 141 



it were, a general dissection of the country upon a 

 great scale, and it has the advantage in being a living 

 dissection. We can then see how one set of pheno- 

 mena, as it were, helps another : how field communi- 

 cates with field, and district with district. Between 

 the cultivated plain and the barren mountain, or upon 

 the nether slopes of the latter, is the favourite locality 

 for the evergreens of this country, furze, broom, ju- 

 niper, or pine, according to the climate and the soil : 

 thus they naturally lie across those currents by which 

 the air is changed from the one of them to the other,, 

 and prevent the light and valuable soil from being 

 scattered where it would be lost. At that time, too, 

 we see one of those remarkable compensations, of 

 which there are so many beautiful instances in nature, 

 and which show that there are even cases, in which 

 the absence of something which we, in our mode 

 of estimating value, are apt to consider as quite 

 indispensable, actually brings with it a compensa- 

 tion. So very dangerous is it for us to apply the 

 common notions of good and evil to the works of 

 nature. 



Those who have been in the habit of simply looking 

 about them, whether with any ulterior purpose or not, 

 must often have observed how much better the soil is 

 upon surfaces turned to the north than upon those 

 which are turned to the south. If this has not been 

 observed, it will not readily be believed ; because, as 

 the south sloping bank is, for the greater part of the 

 year, the more agreeable to our feelings, we conclude, 

 very naturally, that it must be the best for all the pur- 

 poses of nature* 



