68 



A HISTORY OF 



cither magnify 1 its apparent defects ; or as- 

 sert, that b what seems defects to us, may be 

 real beauties to some wiser order of beings. 

 They observe, that multitudes of animals are 

 concealed in the ocean, and but a small part 

 of them are known ; the rest, therefore, they 

 fail not to say, were certainly made for their 

 own benefit, and not for ours. How far ei- 

 ther of these opinions be just, I will not pre- 

 sume to determine; but of this we are cer- 

 tain, that God has endowed us with abilities 

 to turn this great extent of waters to our own 

 advantage. He has made these things, per- 

 haps, for other uses ; but he has given us fa- 

 culties to convert them to our own. This 

 much agitated question, therefore, seems to 

 terminate here. We shall never know whe- 

 ther the things of this world have been 

 made for our use; but we very well know 

 that we have been made to enjoy them. Let 

 us then boldly affirm, that the earth, and 

 all its wonders, are ours; since we are fur- 

 nished with powers to force them into our 

 service. Man is the lord of all the sublunary 

 creation ; the howling savage, the winding 

 serpent, with all the untameable and rebel- 

 lious offspring of nature, are destroyed in the 

 contest, or driven to a distance from his ha- 

 bitations. The extensive and tempestuous 

 ocean, instead of limiting or dividing his 

 power, only serves to assist his industry, and 

 enlarge the sphere of his enjoyments. Its 

 billows, and its monsters, instead of present- 

 ing a scene of terror, only call up the cou- 

 rage of this little intrepid being ; and the 

 greatest danger that man now fears on the 

 deep, is from his fellow-creatures. Indeed, 

 when I consider the human race as Nature 

 has formed them, there is but very little of 

 the habitable globe that seems made for 

 them. But when I consider them as accumu- 

 lating the experience of ages, in commanding 

 the earth, there is nothing so great, or so ter- 

 rible. What a poor contemptible being is the 

 naked savage, standing on the beach of the 

 ocean, and trembling at its tumults ! How 

 little capable is he of converting its terrors 

 into benefits; or of saying, behold an ele- 

 ment made wholly for my enjoyment ! He 

 considers it as an angry deity, and pays it 



" Burner's Theory, passim. 



the homage of submission. But it is very 

 different when he has exercised his mental 

 powers ; when he has learnt to find his own 

 superiority, and to make it subservient to his 

 commands. It is then that his dignity begins 

 to appear, and that the true Deity is justly- 

 praised for having been mindful of man ; for 

 having given him the earth for his habitation, 

 and the sea for an inheritance. 



This power which man has obtained over 

 the ocean, was at first enjoyed in common , 

 and none pretended to a right in Liat ele- 

 ment where all seemed intruders. The sea, 

 therefore, was open to all till the time of the 

 emperor Justinian. His successor Leo grant- 

 ed such as were in possession of the shore 

 the sole right of fishing before their respec- 

 tive territories. The Thracian Bosphorus 

 was the first that was thus appropriated ; and 

 from that time it has been the struggle of 

 most of the powers of Europe to obtain an 

 exclusive right in this element. The repub- 

 lic of Venice claims the Adriatic. The Danes 

 are in possession of the Baltic. But the Eng- 

 lish have a more extensive claim to the em- 

 pire of all the seas encompassing the king- 

 doms of England, Scotland, and Ireland ; and 

 although these have been long contested, yet 

 they are now considered as their indisputa- 

 ble property. Every one knows that the 

 great power of the nation is exerted on this 

 element ; and that the instant England ceases 

 to be superior upon the ocean, its safety be- 

 gins to be precarious. 



It is in some measure owing to our de- 

 pendance upon the sea, and to our commerce 

 there, that we are so well acquainted with its 

 extent and figure. The bays, gulfs, currents, 

 and shallows of the ocean, are much better 

 known and examined than the provinces and 

 kingdoms of the earth itself. The hopes of 

 acquiring wealth by commerce, has carried 

 man to much greater length than the desire 

 of gaining information could have done. In 

 consequence of this, there is scarcely a strait 

 or a harbour, scarcely a rock or a quicksand, 

 scarcely an inflexion of the shore, or the jut- 

 ting of a promontory, that has not been mi- 

 nutely described. But as these present very 

 little entertainment to the imagination, or de- 



b Pope's Ethic Epistle, passim. 



