; 4 6 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



"the central habitation." The Greeks made Olympus the centre ; the 

 Egyptians, Thebes ; the Assyrians, Babylon ; the Hebrews, Jerusa- 

 lem ; while the Chinese always called their country the central empire. 

 This is natural enough (as Aristotle would say), because most people 

 regard their neighborhood as the centre of the universe, and the num- 

 ber of central railroads shows the continued force of this geometric 

 idea. 



One of the most primitive ideas concerning the earth represented 

 it as a vast plain or flat island, surrounded on all sides by an inacces- 

 sible and interminable ocean. At the extremities and around the bor- 

 ders were placed the " fortunate isles," or imaginary regions, peopled 

 by giants, pygmies, and extraordinary beings. The circumscribing 



ii i n i iini i ii ii n iiii ii iiii t i iii ii i i i i t i ii n iiiiiit i ii i ii i iiit iiiiiiiM^ 



K . mI h< i:.i, ! lli 'i.JliliilillliiUli., illM!lHlliliriiiH|.|il IHIililuilil ;n 'ii: .il'iini , in |~:~TT I, ' ". in ii'.l i .111 



Fig. 7. Egyptian Representation or the Heavens and Earth. 



water surrounding the irregular outlines of the land led to the idea of 

 a universal ocean. But, when men began to have experience of the 

 sea by early navigation, the idea of a circular horizon always observed 

 led to the notion that the ocean was bounded, and the whole earth 

 came to be represented as contained in a circle, beneath which were 

 roots reaching downward without end. 



The priests of Veda, the scriptures of Buddhism, asserted that the 

 earth was supported on twelve columns, which they very ingeniously 

 turned to their own account by asserting that these columns were sus- 

 tained by virtue of the sacrifices that were made to the gods, so that 

 if these were not made the earth would collapse. 



" These pillars were invented in order to account for the passing 

 of the sun beneath the earth after his setting, for which at first they 



