15. He who has thus elevated his mind, will he be satisfied with any thing less than the whole world? If in his anxiety accurately to portray the inhabited earth, he has dared to survey heaven, and make use thereof for purposes of instruction, would it not seem childish were he to refrain from examining the whole earth, of which the inhabited is but a part, its size, its features, and its position in the universe; whether other portions are inhabited besides those on which we dwell, and if so, their amount? What is the extent of the regions not peopled? what their peculiarities, and the cause of their remaining as they are? Thus it appears that the knowledge of geography is connected with meteorology[48] and geometry, that it unites the things of earth to the things of heaven, as though they were nearly allied, and not separated. “As far as heaven from earth.”[49] 16. To the various subjects which it embraces let us add natural history, or the history of the animals, plants, and other different productions of the earth and sea, whether serviceable or useless, and my original statement will, I think, carry perfect conviction with it. That he who should undertake this work would be a benefactor to mankind, reason and the voice of antiquity agree. The poets feign that they were the wisest heroes who travelled and wandered most in foreign climes: and to be familiar with many countries, and the disposition of the inhabitants, is, according to them, of vast importance. Nestor prides himself on having associated with the Lapithæ,[50] to whom he went, “having been invited thither from the Apian[51] land afar.” So does Menelaus:— “Cyprus, Phœnicia, Sidon, and the shores Of Egypt, roaming without hope I reach’d; In distant Ethiopia thence arrived, And Libya, where the lambs their foreheads show With budding horns defended soon as yean’d.”[52] Adding as a peculiarity of the country, “There thrice within the year the flocks produce.”[53] And of Egypt:—“Where the sustaining earth is most prolific.”[54] And Thebes, “the city with an hundred gates, Whence twenty thousand chariots rush to war.”[55] Such information greatly enlarges our sphere of knowledge, by informing us of the nature of the country, its botanical and zoological peculiarities. To these should be added its marine history; for we are in a certain sense amphibious, not exclusively connected with the land, but with the sea as well. Hercules, on account of his vast experience and observation, was described as “skilled in mighty works.”[56]