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had received the sanction of some of the mostrespectable Fathers of the Church, and wasthought to be founded on the Bible, but few,even among philosophers themselves, presumedto question its validity. But a very littletime before the discovery of America, thenotion of the earth’s having a globular form,was treated as an impious absurdity. Atlength, however, reason, and the voyage ofChristopher Columbus, restored to the earth itsspherical figure, which the ancient Egyptiansand Chaldeans had given it; and it was nowgenerally believed to be a perfect globe, andthat the stars made their revolutions round it incircular orbits.

Of this opinion were the greatest philosophersof the age. A globe is the most perfect of allgeometrical figures ; and the observed simplicityof nature, in most of her operations, seemed tofavour the idea of the earth’s having such aform. This imaginary simplicity, however,proved to be a false light, that misted its fol-lowers. M. Richer, in a voyage made toCayenne, near the equator, undertaken by or-der of Lewis XIV. under the protection of thegreat Colbert, among many other observations,found that the pendulum of his clock no longermade its vibrations so frequently as in the lati-tude of Paris; and that it was absolutely neces-sary to lhorten it by a line and a quarter, or a

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