DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.




  THAT the, ancients had an imperfect notion of this
quarter of the globe, should not, perhaps, be reasonably
doubted, when we consider the very early period at
which the sciences of geometry, cosmography, astro-
nomy, and drawing, were studied in the schools of
Greece and Rome, as well as in Egypt, Carthage, and
Babylon. It is, however, generally agreed, that the
Greeks, who first among the Europeans cultivated the
science of geography, derived their knowledge of it from
the Egyptians or Babylonians. But which of those two
nations had the-honor of the invention, it is impossible
to determine.
  In those days, the spherical figure of the earth might
be known, and its magnitude also ascertained with
some accuracy. With this knowledge, geographers
would, no doubt, naturally suppose, that Europe, Asia
and Africa, as far as they were then known, could form
but a small portion' of the terraqueous globe. It was
also suitable to the ideas of man, eoncerning the wis-
dom and beneficence of the author of nature, to believe
that the vast space still unexplored, was not covered
entirely by an unprofitable ocean, but occupied by
countries fit for the habitation of man. It might appear
to them, likewise, equally probable, that the continents
on one side of the globe were balanced by a propor-
tional' quantity of land in the other hemisphere. From
these conclusions, 'rising solely from theoretical prinv
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