BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 13 



powers of vision, we might be led to conclude (as 

 was the opinion of some of the ancients,) that the 

 earth is a wide extended flat, bounded by the hori- 

 zon. 



This belief, however, is now completely explod- 

 ed, and the figure of the earth demonstrated to be 

 globular, by the voyage of a number of circumnavi- 

 gators, from the days of the famous Magellan down 

 to those of our illustrious countryman, Captain Cook. 



By these voyagers it has been fully ascertained, 

 that a vessel leaving Europe in a certain direction, 

 may return to the point from whence she set out, 

 without altering her course farther than is necessary 

 to avoid intervening obstacles, or give her, what the 

 sailors call sea room. 



The spherity of the earth is also apparent from the 

 circumstance, that two ships at sea, sailing in con- 

 trary directions till they lose sight of each other, first 

 do so bv the disappearance of the hulls and lower 

 rigging, and afterwards of the higher sails and top- 

 masts. The roundness, from North to South, is 

 evident from the sinking of northern stars to the 

 horizon, till they actually disappear to those who 

 travel far southward ; and from East to West by the 

 difference of sun rise in proportion as we go east- 

 ward or westward. 



The form of ihe earth being therefore proved by 

 arguments the most incontrovertible, to be that of a 

 globe or sphere, permit us here to pause and ac- 

 knowledge (he wisdom and goodness of the Creator, 

 as manifested in that particular form. This wisdom 



c 



