10

A

SUMMARY

O F

GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY,

BOTH ANCIENT AND MODERN;

CONTAINING,

An Account of the POLITICAL STATE, and Principal REVOLUTIONS
of the moft Illuftrious NATIONS in Ancient and Modern Times;
their MANNERS and CUSTOMS; the Local Situation of CITIES,
efpecially of fuch as have been diftinguifhed by Memorable
Events :

WITH

An Abridgement of the FABULOUS HISTORY OF MYTHOLOGY
of the GREEKS.

TO WHICH IS PREFIXED,

An Hiftorical Account of the Progrefs and Improvements of ASTRONOMY and
GEOGRAPHY, from the Earliest Periods to the time of Sir ISAAC NEWTON:
Alfo, a brief Account of the Principles of the NEWTONIAN PHILOSO-
PHY, occafionally compared with the Opinions of the Ancients, concerning
the GENERAL and PARTICULAR PROPERTIES of MATTER; the AIR, HEAT
and COLD, LIGHT, and its effects; the Laws of MOTION; the PLANETARY
SYSTEM, &c. With a Short Defcription of the COMPONENT PARTS of the
TERRAQUEOUS GLOBE, according to the Notions of the Ancients, and the
more accurate discoveries of Modern Chemists.

Defigned chiefly to connect the Study of CLASSICAL LEARNING
with that of GENERAL KNOWLEDGE.

BY ALEXANDER ADAM, LL, D.

RECTOR OF THE HIGH SCHOOL OF EDINBURGH.

EDINBURGH:

Printed for T. CADELL and A. STRAHAN, LONDON.

I 7 9 4.

201. e. 16.

BLI

CHEC

PREFACE.

THE

HE usefulness of Claffical Learning is univerfally acknowledged; but it has been alledged, that the time requifite for acquiring it prevents a fufficient attention. from being paid to General Knowledge. The moft effectual method, however, of profecuting the ftudy of both, feems to be to join them together. The claffic authors, particularly the poets, cannot be thoroughly understood, without a confiderable acquaintance with those branches of fcience to which they often allude; geography, history, philofophy, aftronomy, and above all mythology. To connect, therefore, the study of claffical learning with that of general knowledge, is the defign of the following work.

On a fubject fo immenfe, it was impoffible to be minute. The compiler has endeavoured to felect fuch particulars as appeared most important; and it is hoped, that few things of confequence, which are requifite to illuftrate the claffics, will be found omitted. Throughout the whole work, he has borrowed with freedom from every author from whom he could derive information; and where books failed him, he has had recourfe to fuch perfons as were be able to give him affiftance. He owes, on this account, obligations to feveral gentlemen, particularly to one, for valuable communications concerning Mathematics and Natural History. The hiftorical account of astronomy is extracted chiefly from the elegant works of the unfortunate

M.