THE EARTH. 



CHAPTER II. 



A SHORT SURVEY OF THE GLOBE, FROM THE LIGHT 

 OF ASTRONOMY AND GEOGRAPHY. 



ALL the sciences are, in some measure, linked 

 with each other, and before the one is ended, the 

 other begins. In a natural history, therefore, of 

 the earth, we must begin with a short account of 

 its situation and form, as given us by astronomers 

 .and geographers : it will be sufficient, however, 

 upon this occasion, just to hint to the imagina- 

 tion, what they, by the most abstract reasonings, 

 have forced upon the understanding. The earth 

 which we inhabit is, as has been said before, one 

 of those bodies which circulate in our solar 

 system ; it is placed at a happy middle distance 

 from the centre, and even seems, in this respect, 

 privileged beyond all other planets that depend 

 upon our great luminary for their support. Less 

 distant from the sun than the Georgium Sidus, 

 Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars, and yet less parched 

 up than Venus and Mercury, that are situate too 

 near the violence of its power, the earth seems, 

 in a peculiar manner, to share the bounty of the 

 Creator : it is not, therefore, without reason that 

 mankind consider themselves as the peculiar ob- 

 jects of his providence and regard. 



Besides that motion which the earth has round 

 the sun, the circuit of which is performed in a 

 year, it has another upon its own axle, which it 



