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THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER. 



conducting a ship through the sea, from one port 

 to another. This art was partly known and 

 practised in the early ages of antiquity, by the 

 Phenicians, the Carthaginians, the Egyptians, 

 the Romans, and other nations of Europe and 

 Asia. But they had no guide to direct them in 

 their voyages, except the sun in the day-time, 

 and the stars by night. When the sky was over 

 cast with clouds, they were thrown into alarms, 

 and durst not venture to any great distance from 

 the coast, lest they should be carried forward in 

 a course opposite to that which they intended, 

 or be driven against hidden rocks, or unknown 

 shores. The danger and difficulty of the navi 

 gation of the ancients, on this account, may be 

 learned from the deliberations, the great prepa 

 rations, and the alarms of Homer s heroes, when 

 they were about to cross the Egean sea, an ex 

 tent of not more than 150 miles ; and the expe 

 dition of the Argonauts under Jason, across the 

 sea of Marmora and the Euxine, to the island 

 of Colchis, a distance of only four or five hun 

 dred miles, was viewed as a most wonderful ex 

 ploit, at which even the gods themselves were said 

 to be amazed. The same thing appears from the 

 narration we have in the Acts of the Apostles, 

 of Paul s voyage from Cesarea to Rome. 

 &quot; When,&quot; says Luke, &quot; neither sun nor stars in 

 many days appeared, and no small tempests lay 

 on us, all hope that we should be saved was then 

 taken away.&quot; Being deprived of these guides, 

 they were tossed about in the Mediterranean, not 

 knowing whether they were carried to the north, 

 south, east, or west. So that the voyages of an 

 tiquity consisted chiefly in creeping along the 

 coast, and seldom venturing beyond sight of 

 land : they could not, therefore, extend their ex 

 cursions by sea to distant continents and nations ; 

 and hence, the greater portion of the terraqueous 

 globe and its inhabitaats were to them altogether 

 unknown. It was not before the invention of the 

 mariner s compass, that distant voyages could 

 be undertaken, that extensive oceans could be 

 traversed, and an intercourse carried on between 

 remote continents and the islands of the ocean. 

 It is somewhat uncertain at what precise pe 

 riod this noble discovery was made ; but it ap 

 pears pretty evident, that the mariner s compass 

 was not commonly used in navigation before the 

 year 1420, or only a few years before the inven 

 tion of printing.* Tho loadstone, in all ages, 

 was known to have the property of attracting 

 iron ; but its tendency to point towards the north 

 and south seems to have been unnoticed till the 

 beginning of the twelfth century. About that 



The invention of the compass is usually ascribed 

 to Falvlo Gioia, of Amalfi, in Campania, about the 

 year 1302 ; and the Italians are stienuous in support 

 ing this claim. Others affirm, that Marcus Paulus, a 

 Venetian, having made a journey to China, brought 

 back the invention with him in 1260. The French 

 also lay claim to the honour of this invention, from 

 Uie ciicumstance, that all nations distinguish the 



time some curious persons seem to have amused 

 themselves by making to swim, in a basin of 

 water, a loadstone suspended on a piece of cork ; 

 and to have remarked, that, when left at liberty, 

 one of its extremities pointed to the north. 

 They had also remarked, that, when a piece of 

 iron is rubbed against the loadstone, it acquires 

 also the property of turning towards the north, 

 and of attracting needles and filings of iron. 

 From one experiment to another, they proceed 

 ed to lay a needle, touched with the magnet, on 

 two small bits of straw floating on the water 

 and to observe that the needle invariably turned 

 its point towards the north. The first use they 

 seem to have made of these experiments, was, 

 to impose upon simple people by the appear 

 ance of magic. For example, a hollow swan, 

 or the figure of a mermaid, was made to swirn 

 in a basin of water, and to follow a knife with a 

 bit of bread upon its point, which had been pre 

 viously rubbed on the loadstone. The experi 

 menter convinced them of his power, by com 

 manding, in this way, a needle laid on the sur 

 face of the water to turn its point from the north 

 to the east, or in any other direction. But some 

 geniuses, of more sublime and reflective powers 

 of mind, seizing upon these hints, at last applied 

 these experiments to the wants of navigation, 

 and constructed an instrument, by the help of 

 which the mariner can now direct his course to 

 distant lands, through the vast and pathless ocean. 

 In consequence of the discovery of this in 

 strument, the coasts of almost every land on the 

 surface of the globe have been explored, and a re 

 gular intercourse opened up between the remotest 

 regions of the earth. Without the help of this 

 noble invention, America, in all probability, 

 would never have been discovered by the eastern 

 nations the vast continent of New-Holland 

 the numerous and interesting islands in the In 

 dian and Pacific oceans the isles of Japan, and 

 other immense terriiories inhabited by human 

 beings, would have remained as much unknown 

 and unexplored as if they had never existed 

 And as the nations of Europe and the western 

 parts of Asia were the sole depositories of the 

 records of revelation, they could never have 

 conveyed the blessings of salvation to remote 

 countries and to unknown tribes of mankind, of 

 whose existence they were entirely ignorant. 

 Even although the whole terraqueous globe had 

 been sketched out before them, in all its aspects 

 and bearings, and ramifications of islands, con 

 tinents, seas, and oceans, and the moral and po 

 litical state of every tribe of its inhabitants 



north point of the card r&amp;gt;y a fleur-de-lis, and, with 

 equal reason, the English have laid claim to the same 

 honour, from the name compass, by which most na 

 tions have agreed to distinguish it. But whoever 

 were the inventors, or at whatever period this in 

 strument was first constructed, it does not nppeat 

 that it was brought into general use before the pe 

 riod mentioned in the text. 



