When the existence of an unknown southern continent was generally believed, when its outline was drawn on maps, and it was deemed presumptuous incredulity to reject it as a fiction, an essential service was then done to knowledge by the voyagers who crossed that outline, and shewed that, though certain points and coasts included in it really existed, they conferred no reality on the imaginary continent. A further step was to give a comprehensive proof of its nonexistence. But the demands of geography could be satisfied only by the examination of the several islands which existed in the place attributed to the supposed continent; and if the navigator was kept off and prevented from landing on them by reefs and breakers, if mists obscured his view of them, still what he perceived was no longer merely negative gain: and many inferences might be drawn from our knowledge of such countries, as there were good grounds for considering to be similar or identical in their nature and population with the regions which could not be directly explored.

I do not inquire who built Rome, and gave laws to her; but what Rome was, before her history begins, and how she grew out of her cradle: on these points something may be learnt from traditions and from her institutions.