372 Thoughts on discover'mg a Passage by the North Pole. 



tains, tliat no danger was to be apprehended from this cause. 

 Those who asserteif, that they had advaiu-ed within a degree of 

 the Pole, estinmred the variation there at five points of the com- 

 pass. Captain W lod, in stating the acconnt given of the Dutch 

 seamen's voyage liy Captain Goulden, omits one very material 

 point, of which we are informed by Mr. Boyle, which is, that 

 one of the Dutch captains coming over to Enghmd, Captain 

 Goulden carried him to some of the Northern Company, who 

 were perfectly satisfied as to the truth of his relation. On the 

 •whole, therefore, whether we respect reason or facts, there are 

 110 just grounds for apprehensions on this head, more especially 

 as there are other means by which the true situation of a vessel 

 might be determined, and the difficulty, if any arose, would be 

 of very short eontiiuiance. 



As notions long received acquire from thence a degree of credit 

 due only to truth ; and as new opinions, contrary to these, and 

 in other respects perhaps extraordinary in themselves, meet from 

 these causes with slow and difficult belief, however they may ap- 

 pear to be supported by arguments, authorities, or facts (which 

 it is presumed have been freely and fairly urged in the present 

 case, to a degree that may at least entitle the matter to some 

 attention) ; let us now proceed one step further. This shall be 

 to show, that what seems to be so repugnant to the common 

 course of things (viz. that near the North Pole the cold should 

 relax, and the ice be less troublesome) is perfectly conforma- 

 ble to the laws of nature, or, which is the same thing, to the will 

 and wisdom of our great Creator. If this can be proved, there 

 can be no further dispute as to the possibility of this passage ; 

 more especially when it shall also appear, that this affords a full 

 solution of all the doubts that have been suggested, and at the 

 same time clearly accounts for, and effectually confirms, the facts 

 and reasonings deduced from them, which have been already ad- 

 vanced upon this subject. To come, then, at once to the point. 



Sir Isaac Newton, who it is universally allowed was equally ac- 

 curate, cautious and judicious, in his philosophical decisions, has 

 demonstrated clearly, that the figure of this our earth is not 

 spherical, but of an oblate spheroidal form, the diameter at the 

 equator being the greatest, and at the axis the least of all the 

 lines that can pass through the centre. He also determined, by 

 a most curious calculation, the proportion of these diameters to 

 be as two hundred and thirty to two hundred and twenty- nine. 

 These sentiments of his have been experimentally verified by the 

 means which he also pointed out, viz. observing the motion of 

 pendulums in very different latitudes, and the actual measure- 

 ment of a degree at the Equator and under the Arctic Circle. 

 This last evidently proved the depression of the earth's surface 



towards 



