ssible, the
latitude of Alexandria; but it would lead us far from the object of our
work, if we were even briefly to mention his discoveries in the science of
pure astronomy. We must confine ourselves to those parts of his discoveries
which benefitted geography, either directly or indirectly. After having, as
successfully as his means and the state of the science would permit him to
do, fixed the position of the stars, he transferred the method which he had
employed for this purpose to geography: he was the first who determined the
situation of places on the earth, by their latitudes and longitudes, with
any thing like accuracy. The latitude, indeed, of many places had been
fixed before; and the means of doing it were sufficiently simple and
obvious: but with respect to some general and safe mode of ascertaining the
longitudes, the ancient philosophers before Hipparchus, were ignorant of
it. He employed for this purpose the eclipses of the moon. After having
ascertained the latitudes and longitudes of a great many places, he
proposed to draw up a catalogue of terrestial latitudes and longitudes, but
this he was not able to accomplish: he had set the example, however and it
was followed by subsequent astronomers. He fixed on the Fortunate Islands,
which are supposed to be the Canaries, for his first meridian. His
principal works most probably were destroyed in the conflagration of the
Alexandrian library. His catalogue of the stars is preserved in the
Almagest of Ptolemy; and his commentary on Aratus and Eudoxus is still
extant.

Such is a brief sketch of the advantages which geography, as founded on
astronomy, derived from the labours of Hipparchus. We possess little
information respecting his ideas of the form of the earth, or the relative
position or extent of the different quarters and countries on the surface
of the globe. He seems to have been the first who conceived the idea of a
southern continent, uniting Africa and India: he had evidently some
information, though very vague and erroneous, of India, beyond the Ganges.
On the east coast of Africa, his knowledge did not extend beyond Cape
Guardaferi. On the whole, geography is more indebted to him for his
discoveries in astronomy, and, above all, for his setting the example of
carefully ascertaining facts, and not indulging, so much as his
predecessors had done, in conjectures and hypotheses, than for any actual
discoveries or advances he made in it. The eulogium w