414 DESIGN IN THE DISPOSITION OF MINERALS. 



tion, and from natural decay; in the more general disper- 

 sion ot" those metals which are most important, and the com- 

 paratively rare occurrence of others which are less so; and 

 still farther in affording the means whereby their compound 

 ores may be reduced to a state of purity.* 



The argument, however, which arises from the utility of 

 these dispositions, does not depend on the establishment of 

 any one or more of the explanations proposed to account 

 for them. Whatever may have been the means whereby 

 mineral veins were charged with their precious contents; 

 whether Segregation, or Sublimation, were the exclusive 

 method by which the metals were accumulated; or, whether 

 each of the supposed causes may have operated simulta- 

 neously or consecutively in their production ; the existence 

 of these veins remains a fact of the highest importance to 

 the human race : and although the Disturbances, and other 

 processes in which they originated, may have taken place 

 at periods long antecedent to the creation of our species, 

 we may reasonably infer, that a provision for the comfort 

 and convenience of the last, and more perfect creatures He 



* I owe to my friend Mr. John Taylor the suggestion of another argu- 

 ment, arising from the phenomena of mines, which derives much value 

 from being the result of the long experience of a practical man of 

 science. 



♦' There is one argument," says ;Mr. Taylor, "which has always struck me 

 with considerable force, as proving wise and beneficent design, to be drawn 

 from the position of the metals. I should say that they are so placed as to 

 be out of the reach of immediate and improvident exhaustion, exercising the 

 utmost ingenuity of man, first to discover them, then to devise means of con- 

 quering the difficulties by which tiie pursuit of them is surrounded. 



" Hence a continued supply through successive ages, and hence motives 

 to industry and to the exercise of mental faculties; from which our greatest 

 happiness is derived. The metals might have been so placed as to have been 

 all easily taken away, causing a glut in some periods and a deartli in others» 

 and they might have been accessible without thought, or ingenuity. 



" As they are, there appears to be that accordance with the perfect ar- 

 rangement of an all-wise Creator, which it is so beautiful to observe and to 

 contemplate." 



