It has pleased God to give us rain, without which this part of our
country, at least, must soon have become a desert. The meadows have been
parched to a January brown, and we have foddered our cattle for some
time, as in winter. The goodness and power of God are never, I believe,
so universally acknowledged as at the end of a long drought. Man is
naturally a self-sufficient animal, and in all concerns that seem to lie
within the sphere of his own ability thinks little or not at all of the
need he always has of protection and furtherance from above. But he is
sensible that the clouds will not assemble at his bidding; and that,
though the clouds assemble, they will not fall in showers because he
commands them. When, therefore, at last the blessing descends, you shall
hear even in the streets the most irreligious and thoughtless with one
voice exclaim, “Thank God!” confessing themselves indebted to his favor,
and willing, at least so far as words go, to give Him the glory. I can
hardly doubt, therefore, that the earth is sometimes parched, and the
crops endangered, in order that the multitude may not want a memento to
whom they owe them, nor absolutely forget the power on which all depend
for all things.
_Letter to_ S. ROSE, ESQ., _June 23, 1788_. W. COWPER, 1731–1800.