ABSTRACT
‘It is to be lamented,’ said Dr. Sourby, ‘that we also have not an intercourse with these happy inhabitants of the polar circle. Philosophers have generally agreed in the probability of a southern continent, to balance the northern; but navigators have hitherto been, and perhaps ever will be, prevented by / the ice from access to it. We might there, as king Gongunza has described, meet men in that primeval state of innocence, plenty, and peace, which the traditions of all nations represent to have been the original condition of mankind.’
