THE ARCTIC SEAS. 
PERHAPS in few respects is the character of mo- 
dern times contrasted with that of antiquity in a 
higher degree, than in that enterprising spirit which 
prompts men to penetrate distant regions, submit- 
ting to unheard-of privations, and braving new diffi- 
culties 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 has its origin. 
The ancient nations, bold and intelligent as they 
were, knew little of geographical research: pre- 
cluded from venturing to the north by the dread of 
frost, and to the south by the scorching 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 habit: 
able globe was known to the polished nations of 
Europe. But then a new era commenced: the dis- 
covery of one important law, that the magnetized 
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 tra- 
(115) 
