Page:The aquarium - an unveiling of the wonders of the deep sea.djvu/222

Rh course of decomposition in organic substances, the abrasion of inorganic surfaces by friction, the laws of motion, of gravitation, and the like. I know that all this may be said, and said truly; and yet I doubt much if this perpetual round of strife with dirt, that makes the poet's lamentable ditty,—

applicable to all the world and co-extensive with all time, would have been our lot, if we had maintained a Paradisiacal condition of existence.

Be it so! judgment in neither case is unmingled with mercy. It is not an unmitigated curse under which Creation groans. A Father's hand is manifest in the wisdom and love, which has made the promounced and inevitable sentence to be a corrective discipline, and not a vindictive punishment. What crimes have been prevented, what proficiency in iniquity cut short by the necessity of labour for the support of life! And in like manner tens of thousands are daily kept out of idleness, and its concomitant temptations, by the incessant demands of cleanliness upon toil. The condition of existence being what it is, a fallen condition, a state in which a proclivity to sin is the universal rule, how merciful is the appointment of a discipline which should directly minister blessing to the mass of mankind in several ways! PreventivelyPreventitively [sic], by limiting our opportunities of evil; temporally by giving support, directly or indirectly, to myriads of persons; and spiritually, by reminding us of an inward uncleanness, which must be effectually