12 THE HISTORY OF 



one of those bodies which circulate in our solar system ; it is place/d 

 at a happy middle distance from the centre ; and even seems, in this 

 respect, privileged beyond all other planets that depend upon our grea* 

 luminary for their support. Less distant from the sun than Herschel 

 or 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 boun- 

 ty of the Creator : it is not, therefore, without reason, that mankind 

 consider themselves as the peculiar objects 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 performs in twenty-four hours. Thus, like a chariot-wheel, it 

 has a compound motion ; for while it goes forward on its journey, it is 

 nil the while turning round upon itself. From the first of these two 

 arise the grateful vicissitude of the seasons ; from the second, that 

 of day and night. 



It may be also readily conceived, that a body thus wheeling in cir- 

 cles will most probably be itself a sphere. The earth, beyond all pos- 

 sibility of doubt, is found to be so. Whenever its shadow happens to 

 fall upon the moon, in an eclipse, it appears to be always circular, in 

 whatever position it is projected : and it is easy ** prove, that a body 

 which in every position makes a circular shadow, must itself be round. 

 The rotundity of the earth may be also proved from the meeting of two 

 ships at sea : the top-masts of each are the first parts that are discover- 

 ed by both, the under parts being hidden by the convexity of the globe 

 which rises between them. The ships, in this instance, may be resem- 

 bled to two men who approach each other on the opposite sides of a 

 hill : their heads will first be seen, and gradually as they come nearer 

 they will come entirely into view. 



However, though the earth's figure is said to be spherical, we ought 

 only to conceive it as being nearly so. It has been found in the last 

 age to be rather flatted at both poles, so that its form is commonly re- 

 sembled to that of a turnip. The cause of this swelling of the equator 

 is ascribed to the greater rapidity of the motion with which the parts 

 of the earth are there carried round ; and which, consequently, en- 

 deavouring to fly off, act in opposition to central attraction. The 

 twirling of a mop may serve as a homely illustration ; which, as every 

 one has seen, spreads and grows broader in the middle as it continues 

 to be turned round. 



As the earth receives light and motion from the sun, so it de- 

 rives much of its warmth and power of vegetation from the same 

 beneficent source. However, the different parts of the globe par- 

 ticipate of these advantages in very different proportions,, and accord- 

 ingly put on very different appearances ; a polar prospect, and a land- 

 scape at the equator, are as opposite in their appearances as in the'u 

 vituation. 



The polar regions, that receive the solar beams in a very oblique 

 direction, and that continue for one half of the year in night, receive 

 but few of the genial comforts that other parts of the world enjoy. 

 Nothing can be more mournful or hideous than the picture which 



