—  42  —

over  the  average  domain  where  such  depth  obtains,  it  would  be  found
above  rather  than  below  forty  thousand  years.  Under  such  an  estimate,
to  preserve  good  working  depth,  surface  wastage  should  not  exceed  some
such  rate  as  one  inch  in  one  thousand  years.  When  ovir  soils  are  gone
we  too  must  go,  unless  we  shall  find  some  way  to  feed  on  raw  rock  or
its  equivalent. ' '

So  there  is  something  in  the  story  of  the  pleasant  land.  Search  all  the
dictionaries  through,  comb  out  all  the  rhetoric  books,  and  you  couldn't
get  a  happier  phrase  than  that :  ' '  The  pleasant  land. "  It  is  excellent.
It  is  perfect.  Like  any  other  savage,  you  feel  a  deep  thrill  of  delight
when  you  see  the  vast  pictures  of  the  unhurt  out-of-doors.  You  have
delight  in  the  sight  of  green  trees,  of  growing  grasses  and  nodding
flowers.  This  panorama  of  hill  and  dale,  of  rolling  lands  and  forest-
covered  valleys  and  lofty  mountains  pleases  you.  Why?  It  is  because
all  this  was  laid  out  in  the  intent  of  Nature  to  produce  you  and  me  and
support  us.  It  is  beautiful  in  the  beauty  of  utility.  It  is  laid  out  on
precisely  the  right  lines  to  keep  up  the  balance  of  the  aforesaid  little
drops  of  water  and  little  grains  of  sand,  of  which  the  one  supports  the
other  in  the  making  of  this  pleasant  land.  It  got  its  contours  out  of
that  balance.  We  grew  out  of  the  contours.  This  vast  and  splendid
landscape  is  the  portrait  of  our  mother.  We  forget  the  hymn  about  it.
