1 9 6 ESSAYS AND OBSERVATIONS 



gradual rifing of the furface of the land 

 of Egypt, from the annual fediments of 

 the Nile, feems to afford a much better 

 argument againit their boalled antiquity 

 in Egypt, than any thing that can be 

 drawn from aftronomical obfervationa, 

 to fupport a vanity fo univerfal, that we 

 need not go very far from home to find 

 abfurd enough inflances of it. As for 

 •what is faid of Pitheas and other ancients, 

 their wrong notions concerning the re- 

 fradlions, and the imperfecflion of their 

 inftruments, render any conclufions on 

 fo nice a fubje6l, drawn from their ob- 

 fervations, dubious. We ought to fliew 

 more regard to the modern obfervations 

 brought for this dod:rine, than to repre- 

 fent them in a level with the fables vent- 

 ed by the priefts of Egypt. According 

 to feveral modern obfervations, the obli- 

 quity of the ecliptic varies : But we are 

 to remember, that even the noble Tycho 

 Brache committed an error of i8' in 

 drawing his meridian in his ifland of 

 Teraniburgum ; and, from his errone- 

 ous opinions concerning the refradiion 



of 



