102 



THE AECTIC SEAS. 



PtrjiAPS in few respects is the character of modern 

 times contrasted with that of antiquity in a higher 

 degree than in that enterprising spirit which prompts 

 men to penetrate distant regions, submitting to un- 

 heard-of privations, and braving new difficulties and 

 dangers, not only from the stimulus of expected 

 gain, but often from the mere love of knowledge, 

 a desire of gratifying that insatiable and laudable 

 curiosity, in which all science lias its origin. The 

 ancient nations, bold and intelligent as they were, 

 knew little of geographical research : precluded from 

 venturing to the north by the dread of frost, and 

 to the south by the scorcldng heat of the sun, both 

 of which their fears so magnified that they deemed 

 it physically impossible for man to exist in either 

 the one or the other, their expeditions in peace 

 and war seem to have been well-nigh bounded by 

 the temperate zone. Thus it happened, that up to 

 the fifteenth century, hardly a fourth of the habitable 

 globe was known to the polished nations of Europe. 

 But then a new era connnenced : the discovery of 

 one important law, that the magnetised needle points 

 always northward, gave a precision to navigation, 

 and inspired a degree of confidence in the mariner, 

 which soon led to highly interesting and unexpected 

 results. The torrid zone was traversed ; that ter- 



