Thoughts 071 thfProbahiUly of a Passage ly theNorlhPole. 3G7 



passing thrnugh the globe, would terminate in two points dia- 

 metrically opposite. Plato is thought to he the hrst who spoke 

 of the inhabitants (if such there were) dwelling at or near those 

 points, i)y the name of Antipodes. This doctrine occasioned 

 disputes among philosophers for man v ages ; some maintained, 

 some denied, and some treated it as alisuid, ridiculous, and im- 

 possible. Whoever will examuie impartially the sentiments of 

 these great men, weigh the contrariety of their opinions, and 

 consider the singularity of tiieir reasonings, will see and be con- 

 vinced liow unsatisfactory their notions were, and discover from 

 thence, how insufficient the subtle speculations of the human 

 underbtaiiding are towards settling points like these, when totally 

 unassisted by the lights of observation and actual experience. 



The division of the globe by zones being agreeable to nature, 

 the ancients distingu'siied them very properly and accurately into 

 two frigid, the Arctic and Antarctic circles ; iwo temperate, lying 

 between those circles and the tropics ; and the torrid zone within 

 the tropics, equally divided by the equinoctial. But judging from 

 their experience of the nature of the climates at the extremities 

 of the zone which they inhabited, they concluded, that the frigid 

 zones were utterly uninhabitable from cold, and the torrid from 

 intolerable heat of the sun. Pliny laments very pathetically 

 upon this supposition, that the race of mankind were pent up in 

 80 small a part of the earth. The poets, who were also no de- 

 spicable philosophers, heightened the horrors of these inhospi- 

 table regions by all the colouring of a warm and heated imagi- 

 nation ; but we now know, with the utmost certainty, that they 

 were entirely mistaken as to both. For within the Arctic circle 

 there are countries inhabited as high nearly as we have discovered; 

 and, if we may confide in the relations of those who have been 

 nearest the Pole, the heat there is very considerable, in respect 

 to which our own navigators and the Dutch perfeetlv agree. In 

 regard to the torrid zone, we have now not the least doubt of its 

 being thoroughly inhabited ; and, which is more wonderful, that 

 the climates are very different there, according to the circum- 

 stances of their situation. In Ethiopia, Arabia, and the Moluc- 

 cas, exceedingly hot ; but in the plains of Peru (and particularly 

 at Quito) perfectly temperate, so that the inhabitants never 

 change their clothes in any season of the year. The sentiments 

 of the ancients, therefore, in this respect, arc a proof how iuiide- 

 qnate the faculties of the human mind are to (hscussions of this 

 nature, when unassisted Ity facts. 



The Pyiiiagorcan system of the universe, revised mid restos-ed 

 near two hundred and fifty years ago by the celebrated Copcr- 

 nieis, niet with a very difficult and slow reception, not only from 

 the bulk of niankiud, for that might have l)een well exj)ectcd, 



bgt 



