iri-l IIISTORV OF 



Nature Ims formc'd llicm, there is but veiT little of tlie li!il)ilaWe 

 globe that seems made for them. But when I consider them 

 as accumulating the experience of ages, in commanding the 

 earth, there is nothing so great or so terrible. What a poor 

 contemptible being is the naked savage, standing on the beach of 

 the ocean, and trembling at its tumults ! How little capable is 

 he of converting its terrors into benefits ; or of saying, behold 

 an element made wholly for my enjoyment ! He considers it as 

 an angry deity, and pays it the homage of submission. But it is 

 very different when he has exercised his mental powers ; when 

 he has learned to find his own superiority, and to make it sub- 

 servient to Ids commands. It is then that his dignity begins to 

 appear, and that the true Deity is justly praised for having been 

 mindful of man ; for having given him the earth for his habita- 

 tion, and the sea for an inheritance. 



This power which man has obtained over the ocean, was at 

 first enjoyed in common ; and none pretended to a right in that 

 element where all seemed intruders. The sea, therefore, was 

 open to all, till the time of the emperor Justinian. His succes- 

 sor Leo granted such as were in possession of the shore, the sole 

 right of fishing before their respective territories. The Thra- 

 cian Bosphorus was the first that was thus appropriated j and 

 from that time it has been the struggle of most of the powers of 

 Europe to obtain an exclusive right in this element. The re- 

 public of Venice claims the Adriatic. The Danes are in pos- 

 session of the Baltic. But the English have a more extensive 

 claim to the empire of all the seas encompassing the kingdoms 

 of England, Scotland, and Ireland ; and although these have been 

 long contested, yet they are now considered as their indisputable 

 property. Every one knows that the great power of the nation 

 is exerted on this clement ; and that the instant England ceases 

 to be superior upon the ocean, its safety begins to be precarious. 



It is in some measure owing to our dependence upon the sea, 

 and to our commerce there, that we are so well acquainted with 

 its extent and figure. The bays, gulfs, currents, and shallows 

 of the ocean, are much better known and examined than the 

 pro\dnces and kingdoms ofthe earth itself. The hopes of ac 

 quiring wealth by commerce, has carried man to much greatef 

 length than the desire of gaining information could have done. 

 In consequence of this, fhere is scarce a strait or a harbour. 



