cannot, with any colour of justice, take umbrage at our attempting such a
settlement. To close then this subject, the importance of which alone
inclined me to spend so much of mine and the reader's time about it:

It is most evident, that, if such a settlement was made at Juan
Fernandez, proper magazines erected, and a constant correspondence
established between that island and the Terra Australis, these three
consequences must absolutely follow from thence: 1. That a new trade
would be opened, which must carry off a great quantity of our goods and
manufactures, that cannot, at present, be brought to any market, or at
least, not to so good a market as if there was a greater demand for them.
2. It would render this navigation, which is at present so strange, and
consequently so terrible, to us, easy and familiar; which might be
attended with advantages that cannot be foreseen, especially since there
is, as I before observed, in all probability another southern continent,
which is still to be discovered. 3. It would greatly increase our
shipping and our seamen, which are the true and natural strength of this
country, extend our naval power, and raise the reputation of this nation;
the most distant prospect of which is sufficient to warm the soul of any
man who has the least regard for his country, with courage sufficient to
despise the imputations that may be thrown upon him as a visionary
projector, for taking so much pains about an affair that can tend so
little to his private advantage. We will now add a few words with
respect to the advantages arising from having thus digested the history
of circumnavigators, from the earliest account of time to the present,
and then shut up the whole with another section, containing the last
circumnavigation by Rear-Admiral Anson, whose voyage has at least shown
that, under a proper officer, English seamen are able to achieve as much
as they ever did; and that is as much as was ever done by any nation in
the world.

It is a point that has always admitted some debate, whether science
stands more indebted to speculation or practice; or, in other words,
whether the greater discoveries have been made by men of deep study, or
persons of great experience in the most useful parts of knowledge. But
this, I think, is a proposition that admits of no dispute at all, that
the noblest discoveries have been the result of a just mixture of theory
with practice. It was from hence that the