The Flarmony of Creation. 647 
is something incalculable. It is reckoned that one stratum 
of coal must have required thousands of years for its 
formation. It has been poetically suggested that the sun 
heat has been for ages absorbed by the vegetable kingdom, 
stored up in her woody warehouse, and fixed in the form 
of coal. That thus the carboriferous system are now 
giving out in detail, at every fireside and from every fur- 
nace now in use by man, that warmth which shone upon 
the earth many ages ago. 
Air, water, and heat have, therefore, been the grand 
agencies by means of which the world has been rendered 
habitable for man and the inferior animals. 
We find proofs of divine foresight not alone in the 
inexhaustible supplies of mineral fuel, but in an immense 
variety of earth and ores. It is for our use that iron, 
copper, lead, silver, tin, marble, gypsum, sulphur, rock-salt, 
and a great variety of other metals have been deposited in 
the veins and crevices or in the mines and quarries of the 
subterranean world. That mixture of earths and alkalies, 
of inarl, lime, sand, or chalk, so favourable to agriculture, 
results from the decomposition of the solid rocks. Springs 
and streamlets rushing along their tiny beds, and through 
minutes crevices, carry in solution materials rich for the 
nourishment of mother-earth, and enables her to supply 
food fitted for corn and every kind of plant. If we are 
struck with the sublimity of the heavens and the wonders 
of the deep, we have reason to be enchanted with the 
beauties of floral creation. The immense variety of plants 
which deck the great globe is one of the marvels of divine 
power. Wherever we wander on the far stretching prairie, 
in the tropical savannah, in the rich valleys of Europe, on 
the margin of the ocean, or the mountain top, we behold 
the garden of nature spread in rich profusion at our feet. 
Every conceivable form, almost every hue, perfumes of 
infinite degrees, attract our attention. The plants exhibit 
an amazing variety, not only in their external forms, but 
also in the duration of their existence, and in the aggrega- 
tion of their fruits. While centuries have elapsed since the 
giant Wellingtonians first germed in the mountain slopes 
of California, a single summer's night bounds the fleeting 
life of the mushroom, and while the slightest touch suffices 
to bruise the delicate ulve of our fronds, ebony blunts the 
sharpness of the woodman’s axe. One of the most won- 
derful properties of the vegetable cell is its power of elabo- 
rating such a vast variety of products. It feeds upon 
