stones, and corn serve him. The field is at once
his floor, his work-yard, his play-ground, his garden,
and his bed.

"More servants wait on man
Than he'll take notice of."

Nature, in its ministry to man, is not only the
material, but is also the process and the result.
All the parts incessantly work into each other's
hands for the profit of man. The wind sows the
seed; the sun evaporates the sea; the wind blows
the vapor to the field; the ice, on the other side of
the planet, condenses rain on this; the rain feeds
the plant; the plant feeds the animal; and thus
the endless circulations of the divine charity nour-
ish man.

The useful arts are reproductions or new com-
binations by the wit of man, of the same natural
benefactors. He no longer waits for favoring
gales, but by means of steam, he realizes the fable
of Æolus's bag, and carries the two and thirty
winds in the boiler of his boat. To diminish fric-
tion, he paves the road with iron bars, and, mount-
ing a coach with a ship-load of men, animals, and
merchandise behind him, he darts through the
country, from town to town, like an eagle or a
swallow through the air. By the aggregate of
these aids, how is the face of the world changed,
from the era of Noah to that of Napoleon! The

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