THE EARTH. IS 



CHAPTER III. 



A VIEW OP THE SURFACE OF THE EARTH. 



WHEN we take a slight survey of the surface of 

 our globe, a thousand objects offer themselves, 

 which, though long known, yet still demand our 

 curiosity. The most obvious beauty that every- 

 where strikes the eye is the verdant covering of 

 the earth, which is formed by a happy mixture of 

 herbs and trees of various magnitudes and uses. 

 It has been often remarked, that no colour re- 

 freshes the sight so well as green ; and it may 

 be added, as a farther proof of the assertion, that 

 the inhabitants of those places where the fields 

 are continually white with snow, generally become 

 blind long before the usual course of nature. 



This advantage, which arises from the verdure 

 of the fields, is not a little improved by their 

 agreeable inequalities. There are scarcely two 

 natural landscapes that offer prospects entirely 

 resembling each other ; their risings and depres- 

 sions, their hills and valleys, are never entirely the 

 same, but always offer something new to entertain 

 and refresh the imagination. 



But to increase the beauties of the face of na- 

 ture, the landscape is enlivened by springs and 

 lakes, and intersected by rivulets. These lend a 

 brightness to the prospect ; give motion and cool- 

 ness to the air j and, what is much more import- 

 ant, furnish health and subsistence to animated 

 nature. 



