and deformed look, confirm the voice of Revelation, but its caverns and deepest receffes, fo far as man has penetrated into them, exhibit unequivocal proofs of a univerfal deluge. We have to confider our habitation, therefore, in a state of comparative ruin; in its present condition it stands as a monument of divine power, wifdom, and goodness:-What was it then before human tranfgreffion thus defpoiled it? And what will it be when he that fitteth on the throne shall have new-made it fit for the habitation of righteousness?

The fituation and form of the earth first claim our attention. We have before obferved that it is one of those bodies which circulate in our folar fyftem: it occupies the third place from the fun; Mercury and Venus being within its orbit, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the Georgium Sidus without it. On this account fome authors have celebrated the happiness of its fituation, as being fuperior to that of the other planets; but perhaps in this they have only flattered the little selfish vanity of human nature, which has a very strong defire to monopolize the favour of the Deity.

Befides that motion which the earth has round the fun, the circuit of which is performed in a year, it has another upon its own axle, which it performs in twenty-four hours: thus like a chariot wheel it has a compound motion, for while it goes forward on its journey, it is all the while turning upon itself. From

the

the first of these two arife the grateful viciffitude of the feafons; from the fecond that of day and night.

It may reasonably be thought that a body thus wheeling in circles will itself be a sphere: the earth, beyond a doubt, is found fo to be; whenever its shadow happens to fall upon the moon in an eclipse, it appears to be always circular, in whatever pofition it is projected; and it is easy to prove, that a body which in every position makes a circular fhadow muft itself be round.

The rotundity of the earth may also be proved from the meeting of two fhips at fea; the top of each are the first parts that are discovered by both, the under parts being hidden by the convexity of the globe which arifes between them. The fhips in this inftance may be refembled to two men who approach each other on the oppofite fides of a hill; their heads will firft be seen, as they gradually come nearer they will come entirely into view. Notwithstanding which, when we fay that the earth is round, we only mean that it is nearly fo: it has been found by actual meafurement to be rather flatted at the poles, fo that its form is fomewhat like that of an orange. The caufe of this is afcribed to the greater rapidity of the motion with which the parts of the earth are carried round at the equator, which confequently is raised in proportion as the poles are depreffed.

As the earth receives light from the fun, fo it likewife derives much of its warmth and power of vege

tation from the fame fource: but the different parts of it participate of thofe advantages in very different degrees, and accordingly put on very different appearances a polar profpect and a landscape at the equator are as oppofite in their appearances as in their fituation. The polar regions receive the folar beams in a very oblique direction, and continue for one half of the year in night. They possess but few of the genial comforts that other parts of the world enjoy, at leaft in our apprehenfion; but the inhabitants of those dreary countries find charms enough to attach them to the spot, and even to prefer it to any other part of the earth. A ftriking inftance this of the goodness of Providence, which enables human nature to accommodate itself to its fituation in every part of the globe. Nothing can be more dreadful and hideous than the picture which travellers prefent of those wretched regions. The ground, which is rocky and barren, rears itself in every place into lofty mountains and inacceffible cliffs, and meets the mariner's eye even at forty leagues diftance from the fhore. These precipices, frightful in themfelves, receive an additional horror by being always covered with ice and fnow, which daily feem to accumulate and fill all the vallies with increafing defolation. The few rocks and cliffs that are bare of fnow look at a distance of a dark brown colour, and quite naked. Upon a nearer approach they are found replete with many veins of different coloured ftone, and here and there fpread

over with a little earth and a fcanty portion of grafs and heath; the internal parts of the country are ftill more defolate. In wandering these folitudes fome plains appear covered with ice, which at first glance feems to promise the traveller an eafy journey; but these are even more formidable and more unpaffable than the mountains themselves, being cleft with dreadful chafms, and every where abounding with pits that threaten certain deftruction. The feas that furround thefe inhofpitable coafts are ftill more aftonishing, being covered with flakes of floating ice that fpread like extenfive fields, or that rife out of the water like enormous mountains. Thefe, which are compofed of materials as clear and transparent as glafs, affume many ftrange and fantastic appearances. Some of them look like churches or caftles, with pointed turrets; fome like fhips in full fail; and people have often given themfelves the fruitlefs toil to fet out in order to pilot the imaginary veffels into harbour. There are ftill others that appear like large islands, with plains, and vallies, and hills, which often rear their heads two hundred yards above the level of the fea; and although the height of these be amazing, yet their depth beneath is ftill more so, some of them being found to fink three hundred fathom under water. To add ftill further to the horrors of the polar regions, there is often fo thick a fog for days together, that the inhabitants are enveloped in almost total darkness, which expofes the mariner to the greatest perils.

The

The above account is chiefly taken from Crantz's Hiftory of Greenland, which, as it is connected with the miffion of the Moravian Brethren to that inhofpitable country, is a moft ufeful, pious, and entertaining work.

It was the opinion of the ancients that the torrid zone was not habitable: they had not indeed penetrated to that region; but as far as they had penetrated towards the line, they observed an increase of heat from hence they concluded that at the equator the earth must be incapable of vegetation. It is true that the landscape betwixt the tropics is in perfect contraft with that which is mentioned above; but no part of the earth teems more with life than fome parts of the torrid zone. In those countries the fun-beams, darting directly downwards, burn up the lighter foils into extenfive fandy deferts, or quicken all the moifture with incredible vegetation. In thofe regions almost all the fame inconveniencies are felt from the proximity of the fun, that in the former were endured from its abfence. The deferts are entirely barren, except where they are found to produce ferpents, and that in fuch quantities, that fome extenfive plains feem almost entirely covered with them *.

It often happens also that this dry foil, which is fo parched and comminuted by the force of the fun, rifes with the smallest breeze of wind; and the fands

* See Adamfon's Defcription of Senegal.