Geography. %5S 



*^ well call them children; and so we may call all 

 " those nations which were able to trace the pro- 

 " ogress of society only within their own limits. 

 ""' But now the great map of mankind is unrolled 

 " at once, and there is no state or gradation of 

 *' barbarism, and no mode of refinement, which 

 *^ we have not at the same moment under our 

 *' view : the very different civility of Europe and. 

 '' of China; the barbarism of Persia and Abyssinia ; 

 '' the erratic manners of Tartary and of Arabia; 

 " the savage state of North-America, and of New- 

 *^ Zealand, are all spread before us; we have em- 

 *^ ployed philosophy to judge on manners, and 

 *' from manners we have drawn new resources for 

 •' philosophy."-^ 



Geographical discoveries have led to an unpre- 

 cedented degree oHniercoiirse among men. Though 

 this remark is connected with the subject of the 

 last paragraph, it deserves separate consideration. 

 Toward the close of the seventeenth century, the 

 intercourse between distant nations of the earth 

 was greater than it had been at any former period, 

 and was considered highly honourable to human 

 enterprise: but since that period it has been in- 

 creased to a w^onderful degree; insomuch that at 

 the present time, the inhabitants of the remotest 

 countries have seen and know more of each other, 

 than those, in many cases, v/ho resided compara- 

 tively in the same neighbourhood an hundred years 



ago. 



Great advantages to Comvierce have also arisen 

 from the geographical discoveries above recited. 

 The extension of the ficr-tj-ade to the north-west 

 coast of America, is one important and beneficial 

 event of this nature. This article of commerce 

 was rapidly becoming more scarce in those parts 



J See Burke's Zf/Zirr to Robertson, in Professor Stewart's Account 

 *f the Life and lVrit\ngi o£ that historian. 



