S2 . iVar/:>>7f //■>?/ ['CiiAP. VII. 



CHAPTER VII. 



NAVIGATION. 



JN' A^-IGATION, considered both as an an and 

 a science, ^vas greatly advanced daring the iatc 

 century. This advancement was owing to a va- 

 riety of circumstances, which are vrorthy of being 

 transiently noticed in the present sketch. 



The Construction of Ships has received very con- 

 siderable improvements in modern times. That 

 method of building which is favourable to rapid 

 sailing has been, for a number of years, gaining 

 ground, in place of the old method, in which capa- 

 city was chiefly consulted. New and advantageous 

 plans of rigging vessels have been adopted, and 

 better modes of working them than were formerly 

 in use. In the science of naval architecture, and 

 of navigation generally, perhaps no individual has 

 done more to useful purpose than Euler, of whose 

 ingenious and excellent labours, in several depart- 

 ments of science, \\c have had frequent occasion 

 to s])eak. In consequence of his celebrated pub- 

 lications on this suliject, the mathematicians of 

 France were incited to study the theory of shij)- 

 l)uilding, by v/hich means nautical science in thcit 

 country made remarkable progress. A taste for 

 the same species of inquiry afterward began to 

 grow in Great Britain ; and, untler the aus[)iccs of 

 the government of that country, and various pub- 

 lic societies, bus since produced maiiy important 

 improvements. 



