PHYSICAL AND LITERARY. 195 



Conflantljr perpendicular rays upon them. 

 It is to it likeways the more norrhern 

 countries owe their fummer and harvefl: ; 

 which w« are told is over with them in 

 two months, 6t very little more, while 

 the fun's almoft continued and incefTant 

 a61ion ripens fruits, which the heat of our 

 fun, much lefs theirs, on the loth of 

 March, the equinoctial day, could never 

 be able to accomplifli. Thus it ferves 

 for diminifhing their heat at the equator, 

 where it was ufeful to lefTen it, and for 

 increafing it towards the polar regions, 

 where it was j^roper to ftrerigthen it. But 

 a regular and continued variation of the 

 obliquity of the ecliptic would ruin fome 

 parts of the world, and difturb an order 

 tvell eftabliliied in nature, without ferving 

 the purpofe of the Pantheifts. 



I would not take Up your time in ma- 

 ting remarks on what is brought to fup- 

 port this dodrine, from old fables of E- 

 gyptian or Babylonilh priefts delivered 

 to Herodotus, that feem to have flown 

 from their vanity. What is fhewn by 

 Dr Shaw in his travels, concerning the 



gradual 



