336 SKETCHES OF CREATION. 



cropping of the impervious floor over which it had flowed? 

 We need not attempt to imagine what would have result- 

 ed were the rocks left to rest in horizontal and continuous 

 layers, but it is worth while to recognize the beneficence 

 of that vast accumulation of loose materials which we call 

 drift. It is, as it were, an enormous sponge, which drinks 

 in the showers of heaven, and stores them away beyond the 

 reach of defilement and putrefaction in the deep, cool reser- 

 voirs of the filtering sand-beds, so that it is almost impos- 

 sible to penetrate the drift to a depth sufficient to secure 

 an agreeable coolness without obtaining a plentiful supply 

 of well-strained water. So common and so vital a comfort 

 has been secured by the geologically-extraordinary deposi- 

 tion of such masses of loose materials over the surfaces of 

 the naked rocks, and not less by their distribution in beds 

 of sand and clay presenting every possible irregularity of 

 thickness, extent, and disposition. (See Fig. 84.) 



These and multitudes of other arrangements, colloca- 

 tions, structures, and products of a useful and beneficent 

 character, are so many indications that during the long 

 process of the world's fitting up — while yet the human era 

 was contemplated as we contemplate the millennium — man, 

 the nature of man, and the wants of man, constituted at 

 least one of the objective points of cycles of geological 

 preparation. 



Finally, it is eminently worthy of remark that Nature 

 has not only anticipated the coming of man, but has con- 

 templated the exercise of human intelligence. How few 

 of the benefits which Nature affords have been reached 

 without study and thought ! None will affirm that matter 

 was endowed with all its capabilities of benefit to the hu- 

 man race without any design that those benefits should be 

 secured and enjoyed. This is tantamount to saying that 

 the provisions of Nature prophesy a reasoning mind. We 



