indifferent to man; even on the summits of mountains, too high for
the sustaining of vegetable life, he sees a purpose of nature in the
accumulated snow and in majestic streams of the descending ice. On
every other spot of the surface of this earth, the system of animal and
vegetable life is served, in the continual productions of nature, and
in the repeated multiplication of living beings which propagate their
species.

But, for this great purpose of the world, the solid structure of this
earth must be sacrificed; for, the fertility of our soil depends upon
the loose and incoherent state of its materials; and, that state of our
fertile soil necessarily exposes it to the ravages of the rain upon the
inclined surface of the earth. In studying this part of the economy
of nature, we may perceive the most perfect wisdom in the actual
constitution of things; for, while it is so ordered that the solid
mass of earth should be resolved for the purpose of vegetation, the
perishable soil is as much as possible preserved by the protection of
those solid parts; and these consolidated masses are resolved in so slow
a manner, that nothing but the most philosophic eye, by reasoning upon a
chain of facts, is able to discover it. Thus it may be concluded, that
the apparent permanency of this earth is not real or absolute; and that
the fertility of its surface, like the healthy state of animal bodies,
must have its period, and be succeeded by another.

The study of this subject must tend to enlarge the mind of man, in
seeing what is past, and in foreseeing what must come to pass in
time; and here is a subject in which we find an extensive field for
investigation, and for pleasant satisfaction. The hideous mountains and
precipitous rocks, which are so apt to inspire horror and discontentment
in minds which look at sensible objects only for immediate pleasure,