^toGAHTM-bBRAR ' 

 NEW YORK. 



THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



SEPTEMBER, 1892. 



NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 



XVII. GEOGEAPHY. 

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



EX-PRESIDENT OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY. 



PART II. 



3 The Inhabitants of the Earth. Even while the question 

 of the sphericity of the earth was undecided, another question 

 had been suggested which the Church held to be of far greater 

 importance. The doctrine of the earth's sphericity naturally led 

 to thought upon the tenants of the earth's surface, and another 

 ancient germ idea was warmed into life the idea of the antip- 

 odes of human beings on the earth's opposite sides. 



At this the theological warriors of the Church waxed valiant. 

 Those great and good churchmen determined to fight. To all of 

 them this idea seemed dangerous, to most of them it seemed 

 damnable. St. Basil and St. Ambrose were tolerant enough to 

 allow that a man might be saved who thought the earth in- 

 habited on its opposite sides, but the great majority of the fathers 

 of the Church doubted the possibility of salvation to such mis- 

 believers. 



Lactantius asks : " Is there any one so senseless as to believe 

 that there are men whose footsteps are higher than their heads ? 

 . . . that the crops and trees grow downward ? . . . that the rains 

 and snow and hail fall upward toward the earth ? . . . I am at a 

 loss what to say of those who, when they have once erred, 

 steadily persevere in their folly, and defend one vain thing by 

 another." 



But a still greater man followed on the same side. St. Augus- 



VOL. XLI. 42 



