TO THE USES OF MAN. 99 
dispersion of metals, more especially of that 
most important metal iron, were almost essential 
conditions of the earth's habitability by civilized 
man. 
I would in this, as in all other cases, be un- 
willing to press the theory of relation to the 
human race, so far as to contend that all the 
great geological phenomena we have been con- 
sidering were conducted soleli/ and exclusively 
with a view to the benefit of man. We may 
rather count the advantages he derives from 
them as incidental and residuary consequences ; 
which, although they may not have formed the 
exclusive object of creation, were all foreseen 
and comprehended in the plans of the Great 
Architect of that Globe, which, in his appointed 
time, was destined to become the scene of human 
habitation.* 
* " It is true that by applying ourselves to the study of nature, 
we daily find more and more uses in things that at first appeared 
useless. But some things are of such a kind as not to admit of 
being applied to the benefit of man, and others too noble for us 
to claim the sole use of them. Man has no farther concern with 
this earth than a few fathoms under his feet : was then the 
whole solid globe made only for a foundation to support the 
slender shell he treads upon? Do the magnetic effluvia course 
incessantly over land and sea, only to turn here and there a ma- 
riner's compass ? Are those immense bodies, the fixed stars, 
hung up for nothing but to twinkle in our eyes by night, or to 
find employment for a few astronomers ? Surely he must have 
an overweening conceit of man's importance, who can imagine 
this stupendous frame of the universe made for him alone. 
