TO MY LEARNED FRIEND MR. JOHN EAMES, Fellow of the Royal Society. DEAR SIR, ITwould be mere triflingto say any thing to you of the excellency and great advantage of those sciences, whose first rudiments .1 have here drawn up. Your large acquaintance with these matters hath given you a just relish of the pleasure of them, and well informed you of their solid use. But, per- haps, it is necessary to excuse myself to the world, if 1 publish some of' the fruits of my former studies on such subjects as these. I would therefore willingly have the unlearned part of mankind apprized of the necessity and general use of this sort of learning; and that not only to civil, but to sacred purposes. If you, Sir, would please to take upon you this service, you wouldmake it appear with rich advantage bow far the knowledge of things human and divine are influencedand improved by these studies. You can tell the world, that it is the knowledge of this globe of earth on which we tread, and of those heavenly bodies which seem to roll around us, thathath been wrought up into those two kindred sciences, Geography and Astronomy. And there is not a sonor daughter of Adamhut has some con- cern in both of them, though they may not know it ina learned way. Thisearth is given us for a habitation t It is the placeof present resi- dence for all our fellow - mortals: Nor is it possible that there should be any commerce maintained with those who dwell at a distance, without some ac- quaintance with the different tracts of land, and the riversor seas that divide the regions of the earth. The heavenly bodies, which are high over our beads, measure out our days and years, our life and time, by their various revolutions. Now life and time are some of the dearest things we have, and it is of important concern to distinguishthe hoursas they pass away, that proper seasonsmay be chosen and adapted for every business. You know, Sir, that those necessary and useful instruments, clocks, watches, and dials, owe their origin to the observations of the heavens : The computation of months and years liad been for ever impracticable without some careful noticeof the various situations and appearances of those shining worlds above us. I shall be told, perhaps, that these arenot myspecial province. D is the knowledgeofGod, the advancement of religion, and converse with the scrip- tures, are the peculiarstudies which Providence has assigned me. I know it, and I adore the divine favour. But I am free and zealous to declare, that without commencing some acquaintanee with these mathematical sciences, I' could never arrive at so clear a conception of many things delivered in the . scriptures; nor could I raise my ideas of God the Creator to so high a pitch : And I am well assured that many of the sacred functionwill join with me and support this assertion from their own experience. If we look down to the earth, it is the theatre on which all the grand affairs recorded in the bible have been transacted. How is it possible that we should trace the wanderings of Abraham that great patriarch, and the various toils and travels of Jacob, and the seed of Israel in successive ages, without somegeographical knowledge of' those countries ? How can our meditations follow the blessedApostles in their laborious,journies through Europe and Asia, their voyages, their perils, their shipwrecks, and the fatigues they endured for the sake of the gospel; unless the are instructed by maps and tablet,
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