446 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



their liberty may be abridged, and for an indefinite time if need 

 be. By this curtailment of their freedom their line of descent is 

 arrested, and this is the important object to accomplish. In a 

 very inadequate manner, but with illustrations familiar to all, 

 Nature's way has been appealed to as worthy of trial. This is the 

 ringing lesson of natural selection as applied to this great prob- 

 lem, and we commend it, in all earnestness, to those who have 

 the welfare of the submerged classes at heart. 



+ 



NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 



XVII. GEOGRAPHY. 

 By ANDEEW DICKSON WHITE, LL.D., L. H. D., 



EX-PRE9IDENT OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY. 



PART I. 



IThe Form of the Earth. Among various rude tribes we 

 find survivals of a primitive idea that the earth is a flat 

 table or disk, ceiled, domed, or canopied by the sky, and that the 

 sky rests upon the mountains as pillars. Such a belief is entirely 

 natural ; it conforms to the appearance of things, and hence has 

 entered into various theologies. 



In the early civilizations of Egypt and Chaldea it was very 

 fully developed. The Egyptians considered the earth as a table, 

 flat and oblong, the sky being its ceiling ; a huge " firmament " 

 of metal. At the four corners of the earth were the pillars sup- 

 porting this firmament, and on this solid sky were the ' ' waters 

 above the heavens." They believed that, when chaos was taking 

 form, one of the gods by main force raised the waters on high 

 and spread them out over the firmament ; that on the under side 

 of this solid vault or ceiling or firmament the stars were sus- 

 pended to light the earth, and that the rains were caused by the 

 letting down of the waters through its windows. This idea and 

 others connected with it seem to have taken strong hold of the 

 Egyptian priestly caste, thus entering into their theology and 

 sacred science : ceilings of great temples, with stars, constellations, 

 planets, and signs of the zodiac figured upon them, remain to-day 

 as striking evidences of this. 



In India and Persia we have theories of geography based 

 upon similar conceptions and embalmed in sacred texts. The 

 Chaldeans also believed that a firmament was spread out over the 

 earth, and that it supported the ocean of celestial waters, from 

 which fell dew and rain. 



From these sources came geographical legacies to the Hebrews : 



