The surface of the earth abounds with great iii 

 lities. In one part of it we behold vast plains intersect- 

 ed by hills and vailies. Tn another long chains of moun- 

 tains, which lift their frozen heads to the clouds, and 

 betwixt them deep valiies. From the bosom of these 

 mountains rivers spring, -which, after having watered 

 divers countries a nd produced ponds and lakes in several 

 places by enlarging their beds, at length discharge 

 themselves into the sea, and restore to it what it had 

 lost by evaporation. 



6. The sea presents us with islands scattered round 

 its coasts, with sands, rocks, currents, gulphs, and 

 storms, and with that regular and admirable motion 

 whereby its \yate-rs rise and fall twice in twenty -four 

 hours. 



The; lands and seas are every where replenished wif)t 

 plants and animals, whose infinitely varied species re- 

 sort together in every place. Men divided into nations, 

 peoples and families, cover the surface of the globe. 

 They fashion and enrich it by their various labours, and 

 build habitations from pole to pole, corresponding with 

 their manners, genius, soil, climate. 



A rare, transparent, elastic substance encompasses all 

 parts of the earth to a certain height : this substance 

 is the atmosphere, the repository for the winds, the im- 

 mense reservoir of vapours and exhalations, which being 

 sometimes collected into clouds of a greater or lesser 

 consistence, adorn our element by their forms and co^ 

 lours, or astonish us by their flashes and vjolent noise . 

 and at other times melting into dews, mists s rain, snow' 

 hail, yield back to the earth what was .exhaled from it/ 



7. The moon, ;the nearest to the .earth of all the 

 planets, is that we have the best knowledge of. Its 

 globe, which is about tive-and-forty times less than 

 ours, always appears to us with the same aspect, be- 



