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A History of New York From the Beginning of the World
A History of New York From the Beginning of the World Author:Washington Irving Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: HISTORY OF NEW-YORK. BOOK FIRST. CONTAINING DIVERS INGENIOUS THEORIES AND PHILOSOPHIC SPECULATIONS CONCERNING THE CREATION AND POPULATION OF THE WORLD, AS ... more »CONNECTED WITH THE HISTORY OF NEW YORK. CHAP I. Description of the World. According to the bt anthorities, the world in which we dwell is a hnge, opaque, reflecting, inanimate mass, floating in the vast ethereal ocean of infinite space. It has the form of an mange, being an oblate spheroid, curiously flattened at opposite parts, for the insertion of two imaginary poles, which are supposed to penetrate and unite at the centre; tbus forming an axis, on which the mighty orange turns with a regular dinrnal revolution. The transitions of light and darkness, whence proceed the alternations of day and night, are produced by this dinrnal revolution successively presenting the different, parts of the earth to the rays of the Huii. The latter is according to the best, that is to say, the latest accounts, a luminous or fiery hody, of a prodigious magnitnde, from which this world is driven by a centrifngal or repelling power, and to which it is drawn by a centripetal or attractive force; otherwise called the attraction of gravitation ; the comhination, or rather the counteraction ofthese two opposing impulses producing a circular nnd anunal revolution. Hence result the different seasons of the year, viz. spring, summer, antumn, and winter. This I believe to be the most approved modern theory on the subject—thongh there be many philosophers who have entertained very different opinions; some too of them entitled to much deference from their great antiquity and illustrious characters. Tbus it was advanced by some of the ancient sages, that the earth was an extended plain, supported by vast pillars; and by others, that it r...« less