IV ADVERTISEMENT. 



te(5lion. I fpeak not thus out of vanity, but to ex- 

 prefs my gratitude, in the beft manner I am able, 

 as my cuftom is, for the flighteftjmarks of kind- 

 nefs fhewn me, provided 1 can beHeve them lin- 

 cere. 



I have reafon to believe, then, from thefe con- 

 curring fuffrages of perfons of charader, that GOD 

 has been pleafed to blefs my labours, though 

 chargeable with manifold imperfeftions. I confi- 

 der it to be my duty to render the Work as worthy 

 of the public efteem as 1 can : accordingly, I have 

 correfted, in this New Edition, the errors of the 

 Prefs, the blemifhes in point of ftyle, and the ob- 

 fcurities in point of meaning, which I remarked 

 in the firft ; and this partly by myfelf, partly with 

 the afiiftance of certain well-informed friends, 

 without, however, retrenching any thing material, 

 and this too in conformity to their wifhes. I have 

 only taken the liberty, for the (like of perfpicuity, 

 to make fome tranfpofitions in the notes. In the 

 fame view I have added fome others, and among 

 thefe, in the explication of the plates, a geome- 

 trical figure, which renders perceptible to the eye 

 the miftake of our Aftronomers, refpecfling the 

 flatnefs of the Earth at the Poles, and affords new 

 proofs of the alternate and half-yearly courfe of 

 the Atlantic Ocean, by the melting of the polar 

 ices. Finally, 1 have employed a fct of new and 



beautiful 



