STUDY IV. 275 



Greece by Plutarch, of Thrace by Xenophon, are 

 precifely the fame at this day, as they were at the 

 time; when thefe feveral Hiftorians wrote. The 

 Book of Job the Arabian, which, there is reafon 

 to beheve, is more ancient than the Writings of 

 Mofes, and which contains views of Nature much 

 more profound than is generally imagined, views, 

 the mod common whereof were unknown to us 

 two centuries ago, makes frequent mention of the 

 falling of the fnows in that country, that is, toward 

 the thirtieth degree of North Latitude. Mount 

 Lebanon, from the remoteft antiquity, bears 

 the Arabian name of LibaUy which iîgniiîes 

 white, on account of the fnows with which it's 

 fummit is covered all the year round. Homer re- 

 lates that it fnowed in Ithaca when TJlyffes arrived 

 there, which obliged him to borrow a cloak of the 

 good Eumeus. 



If, during a period of three thoufand years, and 

 more, the cold had gone on increaling from year 

 to year, in all thefe Climates, their Winters mufl 

 now have been as long and as fevere, as in Green- 

 land. But Lebanon, and the lofty provinces of 

 Afia, have preferved the fame temperature. The 

 little Ifle of Ithaca is flill covered in Winter with 

 the hoar frofb; and it produces, as in the days of 

 Telemachus, the laurel and the olive. 



T 2 STUDY 



