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36 difficulty, have imagined new lands beneath the antarctic polar circle, and have endeavoured to support their hypotheses by the discoveries of Hawkins, Brovers, De La Roche, Sec. With what enthusiasm are they not described by Maupertuis! and what advantages does he not prognosticate to the hero of the north, provided he should undertake to achieve the conquest of them! This philosopher may be aptly compared to Anaxarchus the Abderite, whose ravings excited the ambition, and drew forth the tears of Alexander. The author of the discourse prefixed to the voyage of M. Bougainville to the Malvine Isles, estimates the superficies of the rare continent in question at ten millions of square miles—an extent greater by a million of square miles than that of all the countries hitherto known. When the immortal Cook approached to ascertain its existence, it vanished like a phantom. The immense and fertile plains of New Zealand will be found to be nothing more than a few small and inclement isles.

In recording the real benefits by which we are surrounded, we shall not have recourse to vague or chimerical ideas. The enormous