PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 161 



have been chiefly compiled, we think all general scholars must ap- 

 prove. We might, in this course, treat separately, the subjects of 

 Ancient Geography, Modern Geography, Statistics, and Voyages and 

 Travels ; but we prefer, for the sake of unity, the Ethnographical 

 method, of comprehending every thing which relates to one country 

 or division of the world, under one head. 



The General History of Geography, is itself a subject of much 

 interest. The earliest Geographical records which have been pre- 

 served, are the Pentateuch, and other Hebrew Scriptures. They 

 contain much information concerning Judea, and the neighboring 

 regions ; and the division of Canaan among the tribes of Israel. Next 

 to these, are the poems of Homer and Hesiod ; and the historical 

 books of Herodotus, compiled in part from his own travels. The 

 world, as known in his time, 445 B. C., comprehended only the 

 regions bordering on the Mediterranean, Black, Caspian, and Red 

 Seas; extending to Ethiopia in the south, and to India in the east. 

 The Phoenicians, from Tyre and Sidon, had explored the whole 

 Mediterranean, as early as 1000 B.C.; and we have still an account 

 of the Periplus or voyage of Hanno, the Carthaginian, as far south 

 as Guinea, about 500 B. C. ; and of that of Pytheas of Marseilles,, 

 who ventured by sea, 300 B. C., from the Mediterranean to Britain, 

 and thence to Ultima Thule, which was probably the southern ex- 

 tremity of Norway.* More will be said of Voyages and Travels, 

 in treating of the Grand Divisions of the earth. 



The earliest regular Geographies, now extant, are those of Strabo f 

 who wrote in Greek, and died A. D. 25; and of Pomponius Mela, 

 who wrote in Latin, about A. D. 50. They both describe the world 

 as then known, including Britain, and Germany. Much Geographi- 

 cal information is also found in the writings of Aristotle, and in the 

 Natural History of the elder Pliny ; but the best ancient Geography 

 was that of Ptolemy, (Ptolemaeus), who died A. D. 150. It is in 

 eight books, forming part of his Great System, (MeyOKy Swr'attj), 

 called by the Arabians, the Almagest ; and it is the first work in 

 which places were defined by their latitude and longitude, as proposed 

 by Hipparchus, who died 125 B. C. The best Arabian Geographies 

 are those of Edrisi, and Abulfeda ; and the first modern European 

 geographer, was Guido of Ravenna, who flourished about A. D. 1500- 

 The first General Map, which we can mention, was that of Eratos- 

 thenes, 270 B. C.; and the best ancient Atlas, was that of rfgatho- 

 dxmon, prepared for the great work of Ptolemy. The famous 

 Peutinger Table, was a map of the military roads of the Visigoths, 

 compiled as early as A. D. 1190. The invention of the Terrestrial 

 Globe, is attributed to Anaximander, about 580 B. C.; and the first 

 modern one is said to have been constructed by Martin Behaim, 

 (Behem, Behin, or Boehme), of Nuremberg, as early as 1492. 



A few words on Mathematical Geography, are all which we have 

 room here to offer. The earth is a large globe, or rather an oblate 

 spheroid ; revolving on an imaginary axis, which passes through its 

 centre, and terminates at the north and south poles. That great cir- 

 cle on the earth's surface, which runs east and west, at an equal 



* The Thule of Agricola, was one of the Shetland Islands. 

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