234 
INATTENTION TO PROVIDENCE. 
cattle, but the good herbage, which the long residence 
of water would vitiate or destroy, is saved from injury, 
and the aquatic and useless plants starved or checked 
in their growth ; but after great gluts of rain, when the 
supply of water is greater than can be speedily carried 
off, it becomes stagnant, and those worms, which cannot 
burrow beyond its influence, soon perish, and we lose 
the benefit of these very beneficial creatures. Drainage 
is therefore one of the most important operations in our 
agricultural concerns. As by irrigation we turn a 
quantity of nutritive water over our lands, or by reason 
of its higher temperature foster the growth of grasses ; 
so, by draining cold and superfluous moisture off, we 
promote the growth of valuable vegetation. I would 
advocate the cause of all creatures, had I the privilege 
of knowing the excellency of them; not willingly as- 
signing vague and fanciful claims to excite wonder, or 
manifest a base pride by any vaunt of superior obser- 
vation ; but when we see, blind as we are, that all things 
are formed in justice, mercy, truth, I would tell my tale 
as a man, gloryingas a Christian, and bless the gracious 
power that permitted me to obtain this knowledge. 
Residing, as I constantly do, in the country, and 
having been long observant of rural things, and the 
operations of Infinite Wisdom, through the very feeble 
organs with which I have been endowed, I have often 
thought, that we, who are daily made sensible of so 
many manifestations of creative power and mercy, 
should be more seriously disposed, more grateful for the 
beneficences of Providence, than those who live in so- 
cieties removed from these evidences ; but yet I neither 
know nor believe that we in any respect give greater 
proof of this disposition, or are more sensible of the 
benevolence of an overruling power, than others. The 
manufacturer by the combination of artful contrivances 
effects his purposes, and by aid of man’s wisdom brings 
his work to perfection ; the artisan may eat his bread 
with all thankfulness and humility of heart, solace his 
labors and mitigate his fatigue by the grateful flavor 
and juices of fruits purchased at the stall ; but he sees 
nothing of the machinery, the gradual elaborations of 
