ARTICLES SELECTED CHIEFLY FROM Natural and Civil History, Geography, Arranged in Alphabetical order. -O- ORIGINALLY COMPILED BY EZRA SAMPSON, Author of the Selection entitled “Beauties of the Bible” CAREFULLY REVISED AND ABRIDGED, AND CALCULATED FOR BY JOHN B. LONGGLEY, Philom. ST. CLAIRSVILLE, O PRINTED FOR THE COMPILER, 1832. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year eighteen hundred and thirty-two, by JOHN B. LONGGLEY, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Ohio. аже док MR. SAMPSON'S PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. ANY readers of this book who can find little or nothing in it but what they knew as well before, are respectfully informed that it is not meant for them, but for people whose advantages have been fewer, or whose knowledge is less extensive. It is designed more particularly as a Companion for Youth; yet so as not to be a useless companion for mature age. Much in a small compass, has been my aim; and as I have generally named the authors to whom I am indebted, so the reader will know to whose writings he may have recourse for a more enlarged view of some of the subjects which are here given in compendium. AMONG the Geographical articles many things are mentioned for the sake of relating some historical facts connected with them; while other places of much more importance have been unnoticed. The articles on Astronomy are derived from respectable authorities: they can hardly fail to excite in the mind of the reader, some ideas of the astonishing power and wisdom of the Creator. Many particulars in this compilation are on the subjects of Zoology and Botany: the study of these sciences is both useful and delightful, and is recommended by the example of Solomon, who "spake of trees, from the cedar tree that was in Lebanon, even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall; and spake also of beasts, and of fowls, and of creeping things, and of fishes." As a knowledge of the history of animals, and of plants or vegetables, conduces to human safety, convenince and sustenance, so it tends also to improve and exalt the moral sentiment; forasmuch as the workmanship displayed in the structure of the meanest animal that breathes, or even of the most unregarded vegetable that grows, infinitely surpasses all the works of men. A multitude of things which are here related or described, as they point directly to a superintending power and all wise contrivance, might be used as subjects for moral and religious reflections, such reflections being ob |