'TRUTH AT THE BOTTOM OF A' MARL-PIT. 51 



you not have regarded such a means of retaining some 

 of the moisture given by the clouds, almost as a 

 special providence ! * Too much water too much 

 ANYTHING however good is always an inconveni- 

 ence : but which were best too much or none at all ? 

 Now this is precisely the thought that used to occur 

 to me (marked ' private ') whenever some visitatorial 

 geological new-and-improved-agricultural stranger be- 

 stowed an overdose of sublime pity upon the affliction 

 of clay that lay underneath my Flat Farm. 



' A pretty business you M'ould have made of it,' I 

 used to think as I heard them glorifying the merits of 

 a free subsoil ' if you had had the ordering of it ! 

 Heaven be thanked, a Wiser Hand than yours has 

 had the management of these things, and has, for the 

 most part, confined the sandy subsoils to the neigh- 

 bourhood of rivers and running streams. Put your- 



* " Levelled of Alps and Andes, without its Valleys and 



Ravines, 

 How dull the faee of earth, unfeatured of both beauty and 



utility ! 

 Praise God, creature of earth, for the mercies linked with 



seeresy : 

 Praise God, his hosts on high, for the mysteries that make all 



joy-" 



[Af. 1**. Tapper. ' Proverbial Philosophy.'] 



E 2 



