11 MTH CENTURY 41 



and K ' the preceding and following." 1 II- 



calle.1 a meaning thai be tilted the 



r a litt!,- at the bottom, and, dispensing with 

 Newton's plane mirror at the object end, secured all 

 ooold 



that epoch in tho wot there waa a 



aingular iiph. aval of human thought and effort In 



yean between 1760 and 1785 the world may !* 



>injj changes than any 



it experienced since the revival of letters and the dis- 

 covery of America. James Cook, aided by Joseph Banks 



th.-r UK n li!..- hiinnelf, discovered new lands or 

 now worlds of great extent and beauty in the bosom 

 -!' tho ocean; William Herechel, as the famous astro- 

 nomer Lalande expressed it, " displayed a new heaven 

 to earth," and discovered seventy-five millions of sunny 

 stars. James Watt had solved the problem of convert- 

 ing th. unruly giant of Steam into an obedient slave of 

 man the beginn ssj improvements in tip- 



man's lot Gibbon had begun his Decline 

 and Fall, Robertson was writ in.; \\\^ Historic*, and 

 lluiiio was stirri* h-li- world of thought by tho 



boldness and no velty of his ideaft I 



.laaseedtim changes. 



hanged hands. The Anglo-Saxon 



race and language had triuni] <>f North 



a least was assured. So was t re of 



same hardy stock lire and his 



ra were pav olent 



\althatsooncn urope. I hero men 



sowing the seeds of a harvest of progress and 



blessing, mixed and disfigured with many a root of 



1 Pkil. Trant. for 1780, p. 499. 



