too regular to have been casual; and if the face of the
earth was so laid out by design, it was for some good reason. But what
that reason may be, it will be difficult to shew. Perhaps this
disposition may be of service to keep up a proper balance; or, it may
assist toward the diurnal rotation of the earth, the free motions of the
tides, &c.; or the water on one side may give a freer passage to the
rays of the sun, and being convex and transparent, may concentrate, or
at least condense, the solar rays internally, for some benefit to the
land that lies on the other side."--This sort of reasoning, from our
ignorance, is no doubt liable to objection, and Mr Jones had good sense
and candour enough to admit, that the questions were too abstruse for
him to determine. The proper part, indeed, for man to act; is to
investigate what Nature has done, not to dogmatize as to the reasons for
her conduct--to ascertain facts, not to substitute conjectures in place
of them. But it is allowable for us, when we have done our best in
collecting and examining phenomena, to arrange them together according
to any plausible theory which our judgments can suggest. Still, however,
we ought to remember, that the most obviously imperative dictates of our
reasoning faculties are only inferences from present appearances, and
determine nothing as to the necessity of existing things.--E.]

If former navigators have added more land to the known globe than
Captain Cook, to him, at least, was reserved the honour of being
foremost in disclosing to us the extent of sea that covers its surface.
His own summary view of the transactions of this voyage, will be a
proper conclusion to these remarks: "I had now made the circuit of the
southern ocean in a high latitude, and traversed it in such a manner as
to leave not the least room for there being a continent, unless near the
Pole, and out of the reach of navigation. By twice visiting the Tropical
Sea, I had not only settled the situation of some old discoveries, but
made there many new ones, and left, I conceive, very little to be done,
even in that part. Thus I flatter myself, that the intention of the
voyage has, in every respect, been fully answered; the southern
hemisphere sufficiently explored; and a final end put to the searching
after a southern continent, which has, at times, engrossed the attention
of some of the maritime powers for near two centuries past, and been a
favourite theory amongst the geog