Excerpt from Modern Pilgrims, Vol. 2 of 2: Showing the Improvements in Travel, and the Newest Methods of Reaching the Celestial City<br><br>The obvious defect, as they discovered on close examination, in all these compasses, was the impossibility of adjustment. The traverser either dipped to the nadir or the zenith; and, if you shook it loose, it went bobbing and dodging backward and for ward, first this way, and then that; and then, all at once, it would sweep the whole circle in an instant, - forever in dubiety, and forever in the pursuit of certainty and rest.<br><br>Mynheer Staub showed them some very curious scales for measuring the nicest lines of length; but good for nothing in real life, for the slightest variations of heat and cold would SO expand or contract them as to make them unreliable. Indeed, they were made to be used in vacuum but this was obtained only by the use of the water-trough, and all the various appliances used by chem ists in a laboratory, by way of rectification and compensation. However, as our pilgrims learned afterwards, all who used any of these scales, in despite of all experience to the contrary, had each for himself his own way of rectification, which he regarded as exact; but, then, there were no two alike.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.