We Give No
Credit Now To The Fables That Not Only Amused Antiquity, But Even
Obtained Credit Within A Few Generations.
The authority of Pliny
will not persuade us that there are any nations without heads, whose
eyes and mouths
Are in their breasts, or that the Arimaspi have only
one eye, fixed in their forehead, and that they are perpetually at
war with the Griffins, who guard hidden treasures; or that there are
nations that have long hairy tales, and grin like monkeys. No
traveller can make us believe that, under the torrid zone, there are
a nation every man of which has one large flat foot, with which,
lying upon his back, he covers himself from the sun. In this
respect we have the same advantage over the ancients that men have
over children; and we cannot reflect without amazement on men's
having so much knowledge and learning in other respects, with such
childish understandings in these.
By the labours of these great men in the two last centuries we are
taught to know what we seek, and how it is to be sought. We know,
for example, what parts of the north are yet undiscovered, and also
what parts of the south. We can form a very certain judgment of the
climate of countries undiscovered, and can foresee the advantages
that will result from discoveries before they are made; all which
are prodigious advantages, and ought certainly to animate us in our
searches. I might add to this the great benefits we receive from
our more perfect acquaintance with the properties of the loadstone,
and from the surprising accuracy of astronomical observations, to
which I may add the physical discoveries made of late years in
relation to the figure of the earth, all of which are the result of
the lights which these great men have given us.
It is true that some of the zealous defenders of the ancients, and
some of the great admirers of the Eastern nations, dispute these
facts, and would have us believe that almost everything was known to
the old philosophers, and not only known but practised by the
Chinese long before the time of the great men to whom we ascribe
them. But the difference between their assertions and ours is, that
we fully prove the facts we allege, whereas they produce no evidence
at all; for instance, Albertus Magnus says that Aristotle wrote an
express treatise on the direction of the loadstone; but nobody ever
saw that treatise, nor was it ever heard of by any of the rest of
his commentators. We have in our hands some of the best
performances of antiquity in regard to geography, and any man who
has eyes, and is at all acquainted with that science, can very
easily discern how far they fall short of maps that were made even a
hundred years ago. The celebrated Vossius, and the rest of the
admirers of the Chinese, who, by the way, derived all their
knowledge from hearsay, may testify, in as strong terms as they
think fit, their contempt for the Western sages and their high
opinion of those in the East; but till they prove to us that their
favourite Chinese made any voyages comparable to the Europeans,
before the discovery of a passage to China by the Cape of Good Hope,
they will excuse us from believing them.
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