Discoveries of the ancients. 
7 
ral different points of the continent to which they 
seem to be fixed, with almost equal precision. In 
fact, it seems clearly shewn by some learned writ- 
ers, * that this variety of position is referable, 
not to any precise geographical data, but to the 
operation of certain secret propensities, that are 
deeply lodged in the human breast. There arises 
involuntarily in the heart of man, a longing after 
forms of being, fairer and happier than any pre- 
sented by the world before him — bright scenes, 
which he seeks and never finds, in the circuit of 
real existence. But imagination easily creates them 
in that dim boundary, which separates the known 
from the unknown world* In the first discoverers 
of any such region, novelty usually produces an 
exalted state of the imagination and passions ; un- 
der the influence of which, every object is painted 
in higher colours than those of nature. Nor does 
the illusion cease, when a fuller examination proves 
that, in the place thus assigned, no such beings or 
objects exist. The human heart, while it remains 
possible, still clings to its fond chimeras. It quick- 
ly transfers them to the yet unknown region be- 
yond ; and, when driven from thence, discovers still 
another more remote, in which they can take re- 
fuge. Thus, we find these fairy spots successively 
* See Gosselin Geographic Ancienne. Make Brun His- 
toire de la Geographie. 
