receive from the sun the same quantity of heat through every part;
whereas nothing could be farther from the truth. If, as Wesley expresses
it, "This oblique globe had not been turned askance," some parts of the
earth would have received from the sun scarcely any heat at all; they
would have received neither light nor heat, except in such slight
measures as to be altogether useless. The arctic regions and the
antarctic regions must have been alike uninhabitable. That turning of
the oblique globe askance, which Wesley represents as the cause of
extreme heat and cold, was the very thing to _prevent_ those extremes,
or to reduce them to the lowest possible point, and to secure to every
part of the globe, as _far as possible_, an _equal_ amount of light and
warmth. I say _as far as possible_; for to secure to every part of the
earth exactly the same amount of light and heat from one sun, is
impossible. Place a little globe in what position you will with respect
to a neighboring candle, and fix the axis of that globe as you please,
and move that globe; give the globe a motion upon its own axis, and
another motion round the light near which it is placed, and you will
find it impossible to secure to every part of that globe exactly the
same amount of light and heat. By inclining the axis of the globe, or as
Wesley expresses it, turning it askance, as the axis of the earth is
inclined or turned askance, you may secure the _greatest possible
equality_ of light and heat to every part; but still that greatest
possible equality will be a considerable _inequality_. So far,
therefore, from the polar regions being made colder or darker by the
globe being turned askance, they are indebted to that very obliqueness
of the earth's axis, and that apparent irregularity of its motions, for
the chief portion of that light and heat which they receive. How Wesley
came to speak so erroneously on this subject, I am at a loss to know, as
he must, one would think, have understood the first elements of
geography and astronomy. Yet his words are at variance with the first