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



by the clouds, almost as a special providence ? * Too 

 much water too much anything, however good is 

 always an inconvenience : 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-im- 

 proved-agricultural stranger bestowed an overdose 

 of sublime pity upon the affliction of clay that lay 

 underneath my Flat Farm. 



' A pretty business you would 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- 

 self on the top of a Salisbury coach, some fine, hot 

 midsummer's day, and take a trip across the Marl- 



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



Ravines, 

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



utility ! 

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



secrecy : 

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



joy.' 



[' Proverbial Philosophy.'] 



E 2 



