the door-way, (b) the door turning on its hinges (cc). The circle being found as before, we choose to throw back the door as far as the point (ƒ)—a line thence through the centre (c), falls on the horizontal line at H, forming there its accidental point. A line thence through the upper corner of the door-way (g) to meet the perpendicular (h), completes the door. If there is on the door-post a staple, with which we desire to make the lock on the door to correspond, we must draw the horizontal (i) as far as the hinge, and then continue it in the direction of H, till it reach the edge of the door at (k), where we may place our lock. The only difference between our last rule and this application of it, is that this is the half circle instead of the whole.

GEOGRAPHICAL READINGS.

INTRODUCTORY.

To give variety to our subjects, and in pursuance of our plan of general instruction, we propose to offer to our readers something of a geographical sketch of the world and its kingdoms, such as may possibly assist their studies in that branch of science, or at least afford some interest in the perusal. It is by no means a system of geography we propose to write, neither a compilation of such particulars as are usually committed to memory by the student. They are so abundantly and well supplied in our school-books, and so early learned by children, we must take it for granted that our readers are already familiar with the maps and acquainted with the terms of geography. If, therefore, we are found to pass over what is usually inserted, or to omit any thing that ought to be known, we desire that it be considered our object is not to teach them geography, but to supply them with a little useful reading on what we suppose them to be learning elsewhere.

It was very long before the real shape of the earth

was discovered by its inhabitants. The first and most natural conclusion was that it was flat-the superficies over which the eye can at one time travel, not being sufficient to give us the least idea of its convexity. If we stand on any part of the earth's surface and look around us, it seems to us a level space, broken only by the inequalities of the ground. If we proceed hundreds of miles, we still find it the same; which, we shall understand, results from the largeness of the circumference, and the small space we see at once-for our readers will have observed that there is in every circle a portion so small, that separate from the rest, it appears to us a straight line. It is thence that in the scriptures and all old writings, and from habit and established figures of speech, even in modern ones, we hear continually of the ends of the earth and the four corners of the worldthough why it was supposed to be square as well as flat, does certainly not appear. The book of Job, by some supposed the oldest writing extant, though it evinces some knowledge of astronomy and of the arrangement of the stars in constellations, betrays that the writer had no knowledge of the form of the earth or the manner of its revolution-he speaks throughout of the Creator having laid the foundations of the earth and made them fast, evincing that they then, as long after, believed it to be built on something, though no one could guess on what. Equally ignorant were the ancients of the extent of this habitable space. The Romans talked of possessing the whole world, though Europe, a small proportion of Africa, and a still less of Asia, was all they ever reached. And even so late a writer as Tasso calls Ireland, La divisa del mondo ultima Irlanda."

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The increasing knowledge of Astronomy and the improvement of Navigation, have now disclosed to us with great certainty, the form and size of the globe we inhabit, and very nearly the form and measure of the lands and seas that cover its surface-for there is now but a little space, immediately bordering on the poles, that has pot

been compassed by European Navigators. And we have learned that those ends and corners of the earth which our ancestors concluded to be somewhere, though they could not find them, have, indeed, no existence; since the world is ascertained to be a sphere-a form in every direction circular; and therefore, of course, without a beginning or an end: the circumference, or distance round, being 24,900 miles.

Of the interior of this enormous ball we know not much—a few fathoms below its surface is all we have yet been allowed to penetrate-and with what is known, our subject has not now to do; we may at some future time recur to it: Geography has to treat only of the exterior. This, as we know, is entirely composed of land and water; above two-thirds of the surface being covered with the water. There is not reason to suppose this division has always been as it is now. On the contrary, recent geological researches prove it to have been very much otherwise. Lands have been submerged by the waters and disappeared. Waters have in other parts receded and left bare the land where before it was not. These changes may have had various causes-but they are chiefly attributed to volcanic influence. At the great deluge, probably, the most material changes were effected.

The land as it is at present placed upon our globe, we divide geographically into four quarters, or more properly four parts, for equal quarters they are not: America stretching over nearly the half, while Europe, Asia, and Africa, divide the other hemisphere very unequally between them. We call also America the Western Hemisphere, and the others the Eastern-but this of course is an arbitrary distinction, alluding to their situation with respect to ourselves-because the earth being round, no part of it can be positively East or positively West, though it may be so relatively to our own or any other country. We make again the distinction between the old world and the new, all as we know of equal date,