HISTORY 



THE EARTH. 



CHAPTER I. 



A SKETCH OF THE UNIVERSE. 



THE world may be considered as one vast man- 

 sion, where man has been admitted to enjoy, to 

 admire, and to be grateful. The first desires of 

 savage nature are merely to gratify the importu- 

 nities of sensual appetite, and to neglect the con- 

 templation of things, barely satisfied with their 

 enjoyment : the beauties of nature, and all the 

 wonders of creation, have but little charms for a 

 being taken up in obviating the wants of the day, 

 and anxious for precarious subsistence. 



Those philosophers, therefore, who have testi- 

 fied such surprise at the want of curiosity in the 

 ignorant, seem not to consider that they are usual- 

 ly employed in making provisions of a more im- 

 portant nature j in providing rather for the necessi- 

 ties than the amusements of life. It is not till our 

 more pressing wants are sufficiently supplied, that 



VOL, i. A 



