•554 DESIGN IN THE DISPOSITION OF MINERALS. 
of human skill and industry, and at the same 
time secure from wanton destruction, and from 
natural decay ; in the more general dispersion of 
those metals which are most important, and the 
comparatively rare occurrence of others which 
are less so ; and still further in affording the 
means whereby their compound ores may be re- 
duced 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 
1 owe to my friend Mr. John Taylor the suggestion of ano- 
ther argument, arising from the phenomena of mines, which de- 
rives much value from being a 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 conquering 
the difficulties by which the 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. Tlie metals might have 
been so placed as to have been all easily taken away, causing a 
glut in some periods and a dearth in others, and they might have 
been accessible without thought, or ingenuity. 
“ As they are, there appears to me to be that accordance with 
the perfect arrangements of an allwise Creator, which it is so 
beautiful to observe and to contemplate.” 
