Tlih LAillH. II 



CHAP. 11. 



A SHORT SURVEY OF THE GLOBE, FROM THE LIGHT OF ASlHONOn 

 AND GEOGRAPHY. 



All the sciences are, in some measure, linked with each 

 other, and before the one is ended, the other begins. In a na- 

 tural history, therefore, of the earth, we must begin with a short 

 account of its situation and form, as given us by astronomers and 

 geographers : it will be sufficient, however, upon this occasion, 

 just to hint to the imagination, what they, by the most abstract 

 reasonings, have forced upon the understanding. The earth 

 which we inhabit is, as has been said before, one of those bodies 

 which circulate in our solar system ; it is placed at a happy mid- 

 dle distance from the centre ; and even seems, in this respect, 

 privileged beyond all other planets that depend upon our great 

 luminary for their support. Less distant from the sun than 

 [ Uranus,] Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars, and yet less parched up than 

 Venus and Mercur}', that are situate too near the violence of its 

 power, the Earth seems in a peculiar manner to share the bounty 

 of the Creator : it is not, therefore, without reason, that man- 

 kind consider themselves as the peculiar objects c€ his providence 

 and regard. 



Besides that motion which the earth has round the sun, the 

 circuit of which is performed in a year, it has another upon its 

 own axis, which it performs in twenty-four hours. Thus, like 

 a chariot-wheel, in has a compound motion ; for while it goes 

 forward on its journey, it is all the while turning upon itself. 

 From the first of these two arises the gratefid vicissitude of the 

 seasons ; from the second, that of day and night. 



It may be also readily conceived, that a body thus wheeling in 

 ircles will most probably be itself a sphere. The earth, beyond 

 all possibility of doubt, is fomid to be so. Whenever its shadow 

 happens to fall upon the moon, in an eclipse, it appears to be 

 always circular, in whatever position it is projected ; and it is 

 easy to prove, that a body which in every position makes a cir- 

 cular shadow, must itself be round. The rotundity of the earth 

 may be also proved from the meeting of two ships at sea : the 

 topmasts of each are the first parts that are discovered by 

 6oth, the under parts being hidden by the convexity of tlie 



