142 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1 696-/ . 



by an artful adumbration entertains the curious eye witli another world of 

 vegetables. . 



j4n Account of the Map of France, according to the Observations of MM. 

 Picard and de la Hire; taken from the Recueil d^ Observations, &c. Paris, 

 1693, fol. N° 226, p. 443. 



Here is contained a short account of the circumstances in which tlii^^ new and 

 more accurate map of France, drawn from the observations of the Royal Aca- 

 demy, differs from the former maps, particularly that of M. Sanson, as the best 

 of them ; which particulars are chiefly the following: both the old and new bound- 

 ary line of the coast are laid down in a differently shaded line, at once to distin- 

 guish them, and to exhibit to the eye the nature and quantity of the correction. 

 In general the corrected west coast of France is brought much more towards 

 the east; and the south, or Mediterranean coast, much further to the north. 

 The degrees of latitude are marked on both sides of the border, or on both the 

 right and left hand sides ; and the degrees of longitude are marked both along 

 the top and bottom, counting both eastward and westward, and from the meri- 

 dian of Paris, instead of from the Ferro island, as formerly. 



The true Theory of the Tides, extracted from Mr. Isaac Neivtons Treatise, 

 intitled, Philosophice Nnturalis Principia Malheviatica ; being a Discourse 

 presented ivilh that Book to the late King James, by Mr. Edmund Halley. 

 N° 226, p. 445. 



The sole principle on which this author (Mr. Newton) proceeds to explain 

 most of the great and surprising appearances of nature, is no other than that 

 of gravity, by which all bodies in the earth have a tendency towards its centre; 

 as is most evident ; and from undoubted arguments it is proved, that there is 

 such a gravitation towards the centre of the sun, moon, and all the planets. 

 From this principle, as a necessary consequence, follows the spherical figure of 

 the earth and sea, and of all the other celestial bodies ; and though the tena- 

 city and firmness of the solid parts support the inequalities of the land above 

 the level, yet the fluids, pressing equally, and easily yielding to each other, 

 soon restore the equilibrium, if disturbed, and maintain the exact figure of the 

 globe. 



Now this force, of the descent of bodies towards the centre, is not in all places 

 alike, but is still less and less, as the distance of the centre increases, and in 

 this book it is demonstrated, that this force decreases as the square of the dis- 

 tance increases, that is, the weight of bodies and the force of their fall is less, 

 in parts more removed from the centre, in the proportion of the squares of the 



