In an erect Posture, and with the utmost Composure he gazed around: reflecting with Wonder and Delight on a Situation, where the +Beautiful+ and +Sublime+ were seen united, in a Manner perfectly novel and engaging. [Sidenote: Novel situation illustrated by a familiar Comparison.] If it be allowed, for the Sake of Illustration, to compare _great_ Things with _small_; he found himself suspended in the central Concave of an unmeasurable Crater Bowl or Bason; and considerably above the Rim or Margin, so as to peep fairly over it: for by looking _straight before him_, while the Balloon continued gently turning on its vertical Axis, he coud see quite round into the +Blue+. The Earth was the _Miniature-Picture_[14] painted on the Bottom of the Bowl, on the Inside. The Sides of the Bowl next the Bottom were rather obscure: as the Objects, on the Surface of the Earth not immediately under the Eye, being foreshortened, were indistinct, either on Account of their immense Distance, or by mere Accumulation of Vapours, and mixed with Haze and Cloudiness. [Sidenote: The Comparison carried on.] From thence to the Top of the Bowl, was fantastically grouped, spotted, and dash’d with Clouds dense and luminous, in the strangest and most grotesque Forms; still smaller and more numerous, as the Eye was more extended: The Rim or Margin ending, not in a fringed Border; but in a plain smooth Line; to represent the amazing Distance, at which, the upper Surfaces of _Clouds in Perspective_ lost all their rugged mountainous and fringed Shapes; and terminated even and smooth: making a perfect horizontal Ring in the Heavens, somewhat below the Eye of the Observer. The whole formed a glorious _Concave_: and the Imagination was lost in the surrounding distant Azure.[15] [Sidenote: _Apparent_ Altitude of the Balloon when stationary.] [Sidenote: The _apparent_ Heights proportioned to the _barometric_ Height.] 49. Considering more attentively the Dimensions of this vast Amphitheatre; as he long continued _apparently_ in the _same_ Spot, and seemed to himself a mere Atom floating _invariably_ in the Center of the empty Space; yet as a sole thinking Being there, whose Mind was bent on estimating the Extent of his View, so accurately defined by the circular Horizon of dense accumulated Vapour; and judging, as of other Distances, by _the natural Eye_ alone; pointing downwards on Objects which were only distinguishable when immediately below it, frequently no more than the Circuit of a Mile on the Earth’s Surface, the _vertical Boundary_ of the profound Abyss; all else being obscured by Haze, or removed from Sight by Volumes of intervening Cloud; he coud not divest himself of the Idea, but that the _apparent_ Depth below him was at least _seven_ Miles: _three_ from the Earth to the upper Surface of the superior Clouds,[16] and _four_ above them.[17] OBJECTION REMOVED.