If We Reflect On The Rude And Imperfect State Of Science At This Period,
The Paucity And Inadequacy Of The
Instruments by means of which it might be
improved, and the superstitions and prejudices which opposed the removal of
error
Or the establishment of truth, we shall not be disposed to question
the justice of the panegyric pronounced by Pliny on Eratosthenes. This
author, after detailing all that was then known on the subject of the
circumference of the earth, and on the distances which had been ascertained
by actual admeasurement, or approximated by analogy or probable conjecture,
between the most remarkable places on its surface, adds, that Eratosthenes,
whose acuteness and application had advanced him far in every branch of
knowledge, but who had outstripped all his predecessors or contemporaries
in that particular branch which was connected with the admeasurement of the
earth, had fixed its circumference at 250,000 stadia; a bold and almost
presumptuous enterprize, (_improbum ausum_,) but which had been conducted
with so much judgment, and on such sound principles, that it commanded and
deserved our credit. Hipparchus, who was distinguished for his correctness
and diligence in every part of geometrical and astronomical science, and
who had specially exerted those qualities in his endeavours to correct the
errors of Eratosthenes, had been able to add only the comparatively small
extent of 25,000 stadia to the computation of Eratosthenes. - _Plin. Nat.
Hist._ lib. ii. c. 108.
Eratosthenes seems, from the nature of his studies, not to have availed
himself so much as he might have done of the treasures contained in the
Alexandrian library under his care, to correct or extend the geographical
knowledge of his contemporaries.
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