But these seeming witty Observations of _Lactantius_, though they may serve for a Jest, yet are not grounded on any serious Reasons; for the Earth and Sea being Globular, making one Universal Ball; all Materials whatsoever that belong to this great Body, sink by a natural Propensity towards its Center; so that where-ever we Travel, our Feet are downwards, and our Heads upwards, the Sky above, and the Earth beneath; neither need they fear, that any where the Earth should Moulder and drop into the Clouds: But St. _Austin_ Reasons better, admitting that the Earth and Sea make a Universal Globe; yet it no way follows, that inhabited Countreys should lye opposite to our Northern, nay, altogether impossible, seeing that side which is our _Antipodes_ is all nothing but Sea; and should we allow, that there were Land and Water mixt as ours is, who could prove, that they were Peopled? or how could any get thither, over such Vast and Immense Seas? or possibly pass the extream heat of the Torrid Zone, not to be endur’d by any living Creature? And what then becomes of Sacred Scripture, which says positively, _That all Men were deriv’d from_ Adam, _and after the Floud, from_ Noah _and his three Sons_? Therefore the Nations of the _Antipodes_ must be of another Abstract, there being no possibility (as they suppos’d) of passing from this World to that: But since the Discovery of the _East_ and _West-Indies_, Experience, the best Mistress, hath taught, that in the South are mighty Lands and vast Territories, and that as far as they have been Penetrated, are found to be full of People, extending their Dominions from East to West. And though St. _Austin_ deny’d this now well-known Truth, yet long before his time, _Cicero_, _Pliny_, and others amongst the _Greeks_ and _Romans_, divided the Earth under five _Zones_; which _Virgil_ describes thus: _Five Zones the heav’ns infold, hot Sun-beams beat Always on one, and burns with raging heat. The two Extreams to this on each hand lies Muffled with Storms, fetter’d with cruel Ice. ’Twixt Cold and Heat, two more there are, th’ aboads Assign’d poor Mortals by th’ Immortal Gods._ Quinque tenent cælum zonæ: quarum una corusco Semper Sole rubens, & torrida semper ab igni: Quam circum extremæ dextra, lævaque trahuntur Cærulea glacie concretæ, atque imbribus atris. Has inter, mediamque, duæ mortalibus ægris Munere concessæ divum: via secta per ambas, Obliquus qua se signorum verteret ordo. [Sidenote: _Macrob. in Somnio Scipionis._ l. 2. c. 5.] [Sidenote: _Vide Carpent. Geograph._]