Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Travels through Finland - Chapter XXIX
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
6E.
€¢
és
&¢
| 66
a
a
THROUGH FINLAND. | ; 377
found and perfevering refearches. The philofopher, animated
by the principle which is characteriftic of human reafon, and
which uniformly tends to refer all knowledge to one point, to |
reduce it to fyftem, and to collect the whole as into a focus,
whence he may at one view furvey the vaft field of natural
phenomena, perceives here a fource of difcoveries for perfect-
ing toa great degree all the branches of real knowledge, and
will endeavour to accomplifh his object, at whatever expence
of labour and time it may coft him. But this intereft will be-
come ftronger, in proportion as he finds the relation which
thefe purfuits, of great importance in themfelves, all bear to a
gueftion, the folution of which is ftill a fecret ; namely, the
queftion that has been fo much agitated, refpecting the figure
of the earth. The navigator has every moment occafion to
know what point he occupies on the furface of the globe. : For
this purpofe, having obferved any one phenomenon in the hea-
vens, (we will fuppofe the diftance of the moon’s centre from
a particular ftar) he ought to be able to determine by calcula-
tion, how this fame phenomenon would appear to the eye of
an obferver placed at the center of the earth. Confequently
into this calculation, the equation of the earth’s furface enters
as an element, which, not being known with fufficient accu-
racy, might eafily give occafion to an error of fome feconds ;
and aftronomers are not ignorant of what moment fuch an
error might prove. It was with a view to difembarrafs the me: .
thod of finding the longitude at fea from thofe uncertainties,
Vor. I. bs 3C that
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
