582 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



everywhere appeared in it the orthodox statements ; but they 

 were evidently strained to the breaking point ; for, while in treat- 

 ing of the antipodes Keysch refers respectfully to St. Augustine 

 as objecting to the scientific doctrine, he is careful not to cite 

 Scripture against it, and is not less careful to cite geographical 

 reasoning in favor of it. 



But in 1519 science gains a crushing victory. Magellan makes 

 his famous voyage. He proves the earth to be round, for his ex- 

 pedition circumnavigates it ; he proves the doctrine of the an- 

 tipodes, for he sees the peoples of the antipodes. Yet even this 

 does not end the war. Many conscientious men oppose the doc- 

 trine for two hundred years longer. Then the French astronomers 

 make their measurements of degrees in equatorial and polar re- 

 gions, and add to their proofs that of the lengthened pendulum. 

 When this was done, when the deductions of science were seen to 

 be established by the simple test of measurement, beautifully and 

 perfectly, and when a long line of trustworthy explorers had sent 

 home accounts of the antipodes, then, and then only, this war of 

 twelve centuries ended. 



Such was the main result of this long war; but there were 

 other results not so fortunate. The efforts of Eusebius, Basil, 

 and Lactantius to deaden scientific thought ; the efforts of Augus- 

 tine to combat it ; the efforts of Cosmas to crush it by dogmat- 

 ism ; the efforts of Boniface and Zachary to crush it by force, 

 conscientious as they all were, had resulted simply in impressing 

 upon many noble minds the conviction that science and religion 

 are enemies. 



On the other hand, what was gained by the warriors of science 

 for religion ? Certainly a far more worthy conception of the 

 world and a far more ennobling conception of that Power which 

 pervades and directs it. "Which is more consistent with a great 

 religion, the cosmography of Cosmas or that of Isaac Newton ? 

 Which presents a nobler field for religious thought, the diatribes 

 of Lactantius or the calm statements of Humboldt? * 



* For D'Ailly's acceptance of St Augustine's argument, see the Ymago Mundi, Paris, 

 1490, cap. vii. For Tostatus, see Zockler, voL i, pp. 46*7, 468. He based his opposition 

 on Romans, x, 18. For Columbus, see Winsor, Fiske, and Adams; also Humboldt, Histoire 

 de la Geographie du Nouveau Continent. For the bull of Alexander VI, see Daunou, Etudes 

 Historiques, vol. ii, p. 417; also Peschel, Zeitalter der Entdeckungen, Book II, chap. iv. 

 The text of the bull is given with the English translation in Arber's reprint of The First 

 Three English Books on America, etc., etc., Birmingham, 1885, pp. 201-204; also espe- 

 cially Peschel, Die Theilung der Erde unter Papst Alexander "VT. und Julius II., Leipsic, 

 18*71, pp. 14 et seq. For remarks on the power under which the line was drawn by Alex- 

 ander VI, see Mamiani, Del Papato ne'i Tre Ultimi Secoli, p. 170. For maps showing 

 lines of division, see Kohl, Die beiden altesten General-Karten von Amerika, Weimar, 

 1860, where maps of 1527 and 1529 are reproduced; also Mercator, Atlas, tenth edition, 

 Amsterdam, 1628, pp. 70, 71. For latest discussion on The Demarkation Line of Alex- 



