rivers, bays, and gulfs, have been imposed as tasks to the memory, without any corresponding ideas; and the mechanica. exercises of copying maps, and twirling an artificial globe, have not unfrequently been substituted for clear and comprehensive views of the leading facts and principles of the science. Physical geography has been almost entirely omitted in the initiatory books on this subject; and most of them are constructed on this principle, that the meagre descriptions and details they contain shall be committed to memory by rote. In this way, months and even years have been spent, and as little real knowledge of geography acquired, as there is of theology by the common routine of committing to memory the vocables of the "Church Catechism," or the Westminster Assembly's synopsis of Divinity.

In communicating a knowledge of geography, it is requisite, in the first place, to give the young a clear and impressive idea of the size, form, component parts, and general arrangements of the earth, considered simply as an object of contemplation, and a part of the creation of God. In stating to a class of pupils that "the earth is round like a ball," the reasons or arguments which prove this position should be clearly and familiarly illustrated. If they are near the sea-coast, they should be conducted to the margin of the sea, to observe how the hull of a ship, leaving the shore, disappears, near the horizon, before the sails, and the sails before the topmast; and a telescope should be provided, that the observation may be made with perfect distinctness. They may be informed, at the same time, that a ship disappears from the view, in the same manner, in all parts of the ocean; and if so, the ocean must form a part of the surface of a sphere; and if the ocean, with its numerous ramifications of seas, straits, and gulfs, be of a spherical form, the surface of the land must be nearly of the same figure, since it is nearly on the same level as the sea, no part of it rising more than a mile or two above this level, except the peaks of a few lofty mountains. Where there is no convenient access to the sea-coast, or the margin of a lake or river, the same fact may be illustrated by the appearance of a person going over the top of a conical hill,-or any waving tract of ground may be selected, and a little boy directed to walk from the one extremity to the other, over the highest point of it; when it will be perceived, after having passed this point, that the lower parts of his body will first disappear, and that the top of his head will be the last part of him that will be visible, as represented in the following figure.

The pupils may next be made to perceive, that if the earth be round like a globe, we might travel directly east or west, and, holding on in the same direction, without turning back, might arrive at the same point from which we set out; and then be informed, that the experiment has actually been made-that ships, at different periods, have sailed quite round the world, the course of which may afterwards be pointed out on the artificial globe. But, as these voyages have been made only in an easterly or westerly direction, they may be led to understand that, had we no other proofs of the earth's rotundity, this experiment would only prove that the earth is round in one direction, like a cylinder or a drum. The roundness of the earth, from north to south, might, at the same time, be explained from the fact, that when we travel a considerable distance from N. to S. or from S. to N., a number

of new stars successively appear in the heavens, in the quarter to which we are advancing, while many of those in the opposite quarter gradually disappear; which could not happen if the earth were a plane in that direction, like the longitudinal surface of a cylinder: for, in this case, we should see all the stars of the heavens, from the North pole to the South, on whatever portion of the cylindrical surface we were supposed to be placed. This might be illustrated by surrounding a terrestrial globe, op any other ball, with a large hoop or circle, about twice or thrice the diameter of the globe, on which some of the stars might be repre sented. This circle might be made either of wood or pasteboard, and the globe within it connected with a moveable plane to represent the horizon, as exhibited in the following figure.

In this figure, the inner circle represents the earth; A, the North pole, and B, the South; and the larger circle, E C F D, a portion of the celestial sphere. It is evident, that if a person be placed at the equator at G, he will see all the stars above the horizon C D, in the hemisphere D F C. If he move to the point H, 45 degrees nearer to the North pole, the moveable plane C D, may be moved in the direction E F, to represent the horizon of that place, when it will evidently appear that he has now lost sight of all the stars situated between F and D, and that the pole. star C, which, in his former position, was in his horizon, is now elevated 45 degrees above it. In a similar manner it might be shown that no such difference in the aspect of the starry heavens could take place, in travelling from South to North, or from North to South, were the earth of the form of a cylinder; and consequently, that the fact above stated proves the rotundity of the earth in that direction.

That the earth, considered as a whole, notwithstanding the irregularities caused by its mountains and vales, is of the figure of a sphere, may be illustrated from the phenomenon exhibited during the progress of an eclipse of the moon. An explanation of a lunar eclipse, accompanied with familiar illustrations, will be requisite to be given, before the proof of the globular figure of the earth be deduced from this phenomenon. Let the flame of a candle or gas-lamp represent the sun, and a wooden ball, supported by a wire, represent the earth; and let a circle, somewhat less than the diameter of the ball, be drawn on a piece of pasteboard, and coloured, to represent the moon. Let them be placed at a moderate distance from each other, and nearly in a straight line, and let the pupils mark the curve of the shadow of the ball on the circle representing the moon, and that there is no body but one of the figure of a globe that can project a circular

shadow in every direction; for, although a counter or a shilling will cast a circular shadow in one direction, yet in every other direction it is either an oval or a straight line. Hence the conclusion is easily deduced, that, if the shadow of the earth falling on the moon is the cause of an eclipse of that orb, and if this shadow, so far as it is seen, is always a portion of a circle, the earth, as a whole, must be nearly of a globular figure. In order to render such explanations clear and impressive-when a visible eclipse of the moon takes place, young persons should be directed to observe such a phenomenon with attention-to mark the figure of the earth's shadow when it first enters on the eastern margin of the moon-before it leaves its western edge-and during the whole of its progress along the disk, if it happen to be a partial eclipse of the moon; and, although they be not directly engaged in geographical studies at the time, yet such observations will afterwards prepare them for understanding such explanations as now suggested. Such minute illustrations, so far from being superfluous or unnecessary, are esentially requisite for producing in the minds of the young a rational conviction of the rotundity of the earth. I have known young ladies, and gentlemen too, who had passed through a scholastic course of geography, and yet could assign no other reason for their believing that the earth is globular, than this, "That their teacher told them so, and showed them a representation of it by the artificial globe." Besides, such specific explanations and illustrations tend to exercise the reasoning powers of the young, and to bring to their view a variety of incidental facts and circumstances connected with the subject, and thus their store of general information is gradually increased.

Having, by such methods as the above, produced a clear conviction of the spherical form of the earth, the next step might be to convey an impressive idea of its magnitude. For this purpose, let a class of young persons be conducted to an eminence, where they might have a distinct view of a landscape stretching about eight miles in every direction. Let their attention be particularly directed to the various objects which compose the scene before them; let them be directed to consider the vast mass of materials contained in the hills or mountains which form a portion of the view-the millions of labourers, and the number of years which it would be requisite to reduce the whole landscape to a perfect level, the number of trees and shrubs of every kind contained within the range of their view-the almost innumerable millions of flowers of every huc, stalks of corn, blades of grass, mosses almost invisible to the naked eye, and vegetables of every descrip

tion, which cover every portion of the landscape-the cattle, sheep horses, dogs, and other quadrupeds, and the multitudes of birds worms, flying and creeping insects, and microscopic animalculæ, which no man can number, comprehended within the limits of their view the number of houses and human beings in the towns villages, and hamlets, which are scattered around, and the labours in which they are employed-the mass of waters in the rivers, and in that portion of the ocean which lies before them, (if such objects be in view,) and the numerous tribes of fishes which glide through the watery element. Let them be directed to consider the time and exertions which would be requisite to travel to the most distant part of the landscape, to go quite round it, and to cross it in forty or fifty directions, so as to attain a more intimate inspection of the multifarious scenes and objects of which it is composed. Let certain general calculations be made of the number and magnitude of such objects, of the motion of the inanimate parts of nature, of the activities of animated beings, and of the quantity of matter which appears on every hand. Having impressed upon their minds, as clearly as possible, such ideas of the magnitude and variety of the scene before them, let them be informed that the landscape they are contemplating is about 50 miles in circumfer ence, and that its surface contains 200 square miles; but, that the whole surface of the earth contains more than 196 millions of square miles, and, consequently, is nine hundred and eighty thousand times larger than all the objects they behold around them; so that they must conceive 980,000 landscapes as large as the one before them, before they can form an adequate idea of the magnitude of the earth. To impress this idea more deeply, they may likewise be told, that, were they to remain in the station they now occupy, ten hours every day, (the time usually allotted for daily labour,) and were a landscape of similar extent to that which they behold, to pass before their view every hour, till the whole extent and scenery of the terraqueous globe were brought under their observation, it would require more than two hundred and sixty-eight years before they could survey, even in this rapid and imperfect manner, the whole superficial dimensions and varie. gated scenery of the globe on which we dwell.

Their attention should likewise be directed to the solidity of the earth-that it is not a mere superficies, but contains within its bowels an immense and indescribable mass of matter, extending nearly 7900 or 8000 miles in every direction between the opposite portions of its circumference, amounting to more than 263 thousand millions of cubical miles. An idea of this enormous mass of materials may be communicated by such illustrations as