Selected quad for the lemma: land_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
land_n	island_n	lie_v	south_n	5,603	5	9.7081	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64321	Miscellanea. The second part in four essays / by Sir William Temple ...	Temple, William, Sir, 1628-1699.	1690 (1690)	Wing T653; ESTC R38801	129,830	346

this be not enough whoever would be satisfied need go no further than the Siege of Syracuse and that mighty Defence made against the Roman Power more by the wonderful Science and Arts of Archimedes and almost Magical Force of his Engines than by all the Strength of the City or Number and Bravery of the Inhabitants The greatest Invention that I know of in later Ages has been that of the Load-Stone and consequently the greatest Improvement has been made in the Art of Navigation yet there must be allowed to have been something stupendious in the Numbers and in the Built of their Ships and Gallies of old and the Skill of Pilots from the Observation of the Stars in the more serene Climates may be judged by the Navigations so celebrated in Story of the Tyrians and Carthaginians not to mention other Nations However 't is to this we owe the Discovery and Commerce of so many vast Countries which were very little if at all known to the Antients and the experimental Proof of this Terrestrial Globe which was before only Speculation but has since been surrounded by the Fortune and Boldness of several Navigators From this great though fortuitous Invention and the Consequence thereof it must be allowed that Geography is mightily advanced in these latter Ages The Vast Continents of China the East and West Indies the long Extent and Coasts of Africa with the numberless Islands belonging to them have been hereby introduced into our Acquaintance and our Maps and great Increases of Wealth and Luxury but none of Knowledge brought among us further than the Extent and Scituation of Country the Customs and Manners of so many original Nations which we call Barbarous and I am sure have treated them as if we hardly esteemed them to be a Part of Mankind I do not doubt but many Great and more Noble Uses would have been made of such Conquests or Discoveries if they had fallen to the share of the Greeks and Romans in those Ages when Knowledge and Fame were in as great Request as endless Gains and Wealth are among us now and how much greater Discoveries might have been made by such Spirits as theirs is hard to guess I am sure ours though great yet look very imperfect as to what the Face of this Terrestrial Globe would probably appear if they had been pursued as far as we might justly have expected from the Progresses of Navigation since the Use of the Compass which seems to have been long at a stand How little has been performed of what has been so often and so confidently promised of a North-West Passage to the East of Tartary and North of China How little do we know of the Lands on that side of the Magellan Straits that lye towards the South Pole which may be vast Islands or Continents for ought any can yet aver though that Passage was so long since found out Whether Japan be Island or Continent with some Parts of Tartary on the North side is not certainly agreed The Lands of Yedso upon the North-East Continent have been no more than Coasted and whether they may not joyn to the Northern Continent of America is by some doubted But the Defect or Negligence seems yet to have been greater towards the South where we know little beyond Thirty Five Degrees and that only by the Necessity of doubling the Cape of Good Hope in our East-India Voiages yet a Continent has been long since found out within Fifteen Degrees to South and about the Length of Java which is Marqued by the Name of New Holland in the Maps and to what Extent none knows either to the South the East or the West yet the Learned have been of Opinion That there must be a Ballance of Earth on that side of the Line in some Proportion to what there is on the other and that it cannot be all Sea from Thirty Degrees to the South-Pole since we have found Land to above Sixty Five Degrees towards the North. But our Navigators that way have been confined to the Roads of Trade and our Discoveries bounded by what we can manage to a certain Degree of Gain And I have heard it said among the Dutch that their East-India-Company have long since forbidden and under the greatest Penalties any further Attempts of discovering that Continent having already more Trade in those Parts than they can turn to Account and fearing some more Populous Nation of Europe might make great Establishments of Trade in some of those unknown Regions which might ruin or impair what they have already in the Indies Thus we are lame still in Geography it self which we might have ex-expected to run up to so much greater Perfection by the Use of the Compass and it seems to have been little advanced these last Hundred Years So far have we been from improving upon those Advantages we have received from the Knowledge of the Ancients that since the late Restoration of Learning and Arts among us our first Flights seem to have been the highest and a sudden Damp to have fallen upon our Wings which has hindered us from rising above certain Heights The Arts of Painting and Statuary began to revive with Learning in Europe and make a great but short Flight so for as these last Hundred Years we have not had One Master in either of them who deserved a Rank with those that flourished in that short Period after they began among us It were too great a Mortification to think That the same Fate has happened to us even in our Modern Learning as if the Growth of that as well as of Natural Bodies had some short Periods beyond which it could not reach and after which it must begin to decay It falls in one Country or one Age and rises again in others but never beyond a certain Pitch One man or one Country at a certain Time runs a great Length in some certain Kinds of Knowledge but lose as much Ground in others that were perhaps as useful and as valuable There is a certain Degree of Capacity in the greatest Vessel and when 't is full if you pour in still it must run out some way or other and the more it runs out on one side the less runs out at the other So the greatest Memory after a certain Degree as it learns or retains more of some Things or Words loses and forgets as much of others The largest and deepest Reach of Thought the more it pursues some certain Subjects the more it neglects others Besides few Men or none excel in all Faculties of Mind A great Memory may fail of Invention both may want Judgment to Digest or Apply what they Remember or Invent. Great Courage may want Caution great Prudence may want Vigour yet all are necessary to make a great Commander But how can a Man hope to excel in all qualities when some are produced by the heat others by the coldness of Brain and Temper The abilities of Man must fall short on one