PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OP PERU. 



35 



produced without an exa6l equilibrium, and unless the northern 

 hemispherebecounterbalanced by the southern. The whole being 

 necessarily subjedl to the laws by which its parts are governed, 

 the instant the northern pole should preponderate over the 

 southern, a dreadful disorder would seize on the globe ; the 

 waters would- flow precipitately, to colle6t'in Greenland, Nova 

 Zembla, Russia, and Norway; and, inundating the whole of 

 those countries, as well as that of the Eskimaus, the multitude 

 of lakes, morasses, and accumulations of snow, which would 

 result, would justify more than ever the application of the epithet 

 of Ovid : oinnia pontus erat. With what surprize we should see 

 the promontories of snow, colle6led around Cape Horn, pass 

 rapidly along the coasts of the Burning Zone ! 



The equilibrium established and preserved by that Sovereign 

 Being who created things by number, weight, and measure, 

 of itself maintains its correspondence and harmony. This as- 

 sertion, deduced both from physics and astronomy, appears 

 to be free from any doubt : it ought therefore to regulate our 

 discourses, and to give a tone to our speculations. On a sur- 

 vey, however, of the history of human discoveries, the fa6ts 

 which ought to correspond with the principles agreed on are 

 not to be met with in the southern hemisphere. Being prin- 

 cipally occupied by the ocean, the third part of the territories 

 which lie in the northern hemisphere cannot be found ; and 

 as the weight of the earth, the average being taken between 

 the different gravities of the parts of v^^hich it is composed, is 

 to that of water, as two to one, it would seem that a sufficient 

 proportion of matter is not to be found in that part of the 

 globe, to counterbalance the one which is opposite. 



Philosophers feeling themselves oppressed by the weight of 



F 2 this 



