390 ON THE SETEIA AND BELISAMA OF PTOLEMY. 
stimulus to our investigations, by the light, how- 
ever faint it may sometimes be, which they afford 
and reflect upon the existing condition of things. 
In lamenting the inexactness and obscurity of 
the ancient geographical maps, which are, in 
some instances, nothing more than romance put 
into diagrams, we, at the present day, have much 
to congratulate ourselves, and also our posterity, 
on the perfection to which this branch of science 
and art has now attained, when every brook, 
hedge-row, and cottage, of this kingdom, are 
mapped out to a mathematical exactness in all 
points; and further, we may say, that almost every 
coast, bay, and river’s mouth, over the habitable 
globe are miniatured in the archives of our admi- 
ralty, with a truth and correctness, that can never 
occasion half the dispute, which Ptolemy’s chart of 
the coasts of Lancashire and Cheshire has done. 
