mile, that he did not take ſuch an additional quantity into the account, where it would make ſo great a difference.
Two hundred and fifty-two thouſand ſtadia, at eight ſtadia and one-third to the mile, amount only to 30,240 m. p. which is 1200 m. p. ſhort of Pliny's calculation. Can we then ſuppoſe that Pliny, on whoſe ſcientific character it iſ needleſs to enlarge, would knowingly have paſſed over, as not worthy notice, a ſpace, which, at 75 m. p. to a degree, amounts nearly to 17 degrees of latitude, or about 1153 Engliſh miles?
But the learned Prelate would do well to conſider, that Pliny is not the only Roman writer who has aſſigned 625 feet to the ſtadium. Columella, in a part of his work above cited, which was written profeſſedly to explain the præepta menſurarum, allots the ſame number with Pliny, both of paces and of feet; and Cenſorinus, Frontinus, together with the authors of the treatiſe de Limitibus, and that de Menſuris, prebſerved among the Rei Agrarian Auctores, all concur in giving the ſame deſcription of this meaſure. Is it poſſible to ſuppoſe writers of ſuch rank and accuracy all uniting in the ſame miſtake, reſpecting a circumſtance of ſuch common occurrence? Is it not more reaſonable and more natural to ſuppoſe the meaning of Polybius to be, that the Radium, meaſured by 600 Roman feet, would be defective one part in 24, compared with its length, if meaſured by the ſame number of Greek feet; and that therefore it would be neceſſſary to add 124 part, or 25 additional Roman feet, to make up the deficiency? and that theſe 25 feet were really added, the teſtimonies above produced demonſtrate.
