DESTROYERS AND DESTROYED. 
157 
fertile it becomes. Does it exceed ? Immediately the superabundance 
is equilibrized by the new fecundity which is given to its destroyers. 
Ye men of this lingering epoch,—sons of the lean and sober West 
—brought up in the little, close, carefully tended, pared, and picked 
gardens, which you call “wide cultivation,”—enlarge, I pray you, your 
conceptions; extend them, and endeavour to imagine something greater 
than these petty corners, if you would comprehend anything of the 
earth’s primitive forces; of the abundance and superabundance which 
she displayed when, soaked with warm mists, her bosom heaved with 
the glow of her first youth. 
The hotter countries of our present globe still show something 
of this profusion, though in a pale decay. Africa, which over the 
greater portion of its area has lost its waters, preserves as a souvenir 
in its happier zones that enormous and swollen herb, or herbaceous 
tree, the baobab. The inextricable forests of Guiana and Brazil, in 
their labyrinthine chaotic confusion of wild plants which, without rule 
or measure, envelop and choke the colossal trees, corrupt them, and 
bury them in their debris , are but imperfect images of the great ancient 
Chaos. The only beings impure enough to endure its impurity and 
breathe its deadly exhalations, are great-bellied reptiles, unwieldy frogs, 
green caymans, and serpents swollen with filth and venom. And such 
would have been the inhabitants of earth. Unable to draw breath in 
the horrible suffocation, she could never have given forth that pure air 
in which man alone can live. 
Accordingly, from on high pounced down the bird, and, plunging 
into the gulf, carried back to the sky on the tops of the lofty forests 
some one of these monsters. But its incessant struggle would have 
been vain against their abominable fecundity, if, from below, myriads 
of nibblers had not lightened the accumulation, cleansed the frightful 
lairs, and thrown open to the arrows of the sun the filth under which 
earth was panting. The humblest insects accomplished the gigantic 
work which made earth inhabitable: they devoured chaos. 
“ Small means,” you say, “ and great results ! How could these little 
beings come to the aid of an infinity?” You would not cherish the 
doubt, if you had been ever a witness of the awakening of the silk- 
