' GEOGRAPHICAL LATITUDE. 751 



It was early seen that the earth, with its mimerous elevations aud 

 depressious, could not be a perfect sphere f which Strabo in truly phil- 

 osophical manner avoids by remarking that in immensity things so 

 small disappear.^ Pliny however offers another solution of the sub- 

 ject by maintaining that an ideal circumference resting on the tops of 

 the mountains would form a perfect sphere.-* Although, as has been 

 shown, a few learned specialists among the Greeks and Romans believed 

 and taught that the earth is spherical, this belief not only never 

 descended to the masses, but was rejected by such scholars as Herodotus* 

 and Tacitus.* 



First circles. — The comprehension of a subject often involves two 

 processes of thought, viz, a conception of the whole, which is then 

 divided into parts, in order by the investigation of the several parts 

 to arrive at length at a just understanding of the whole. In this man- 

 ner the science of geography has been brought to its present high 

 level. There could be no other divisions of the surface of the earth 

 than those arising out of natural physical features or of political 

 borders, before njau had formed an idea of the whole. Having arrived 

 at this point, it was a natural step that the live circles by which Thales 

 had divided the heavens ** shoukl be applied to the earth's surface.''' 

 Strabo quotes Poseidonius as authority for regarding Parmenides as 

 the inventor of the division into five zones, who however made the 

 torrid zone extend beyond the tropics, to which limits it was re- 

 duced by Aristotle. The latter however is also criticised by Strabo 

 for making the "burned" zone too broad, inasmuch as at least half 

 the distance between the Tropic of Cancer and the equator is known to 

 be inhabited. As it was accepted as fact that the '' burned" zone was 

 uninhabitable, its northern limit could not extend farther than the 

 southern boundary of Ethiopia.** Later Strabo seems to have forgotten 

 his objection to Aristotle's division aud himself adopts the zones as 



' Forbiger's Strabo, lib. i, cap. iii. 



2 This is finely illustrated by Prof. Albrecbt Penok, in his pamphlet on " Theorien 

 liber das Gleichgewicht der Erdkrnste," Wien, 18d9, pp. 11, PJ. He says: "Aber 

 jener Bescbaner, der sicb in den Weltranrn begeben konnte, wird bald die Hohen Uu- 

 terschiedo zwiscben Berg nud Thai verschwinden sehen, die gewaltigen Festlands- 

 plateaux werden ihm allrnahlicli mit deni Mceresbodeu verwacbson, dera sie aufge- 

 eetzt siud, iind schliesslich wird sicb der gauze Erdball sciueoi Blicke darbieteu. 

 Derselbe wUrde ihm als Kngel orscbeiiieu." 



^'Strack's Pliuius, i. p. 107. L. ii, 64. 



■•Mannert, i. 4. 



^Peschel, Gesch. d. Erdknnde, ',)'}. 



^Delanibre, Astron. ancienne, i, 1.'). Bailly, Hist, do I'astron., 19(), says, as usual, the 

 idea was not original with him, but suggested by Ulysses (p. 187). 



^Delambre, ibid, i, 257, ascribing the application 1o Hipparchus, Strabo calls Par- 

 menides th« "inventor" of thedivision of the earth in five zones. Grosskurd's Strabo, 

 lib. ii. Abt. ii. ^ 1. Vol. i. pp. 154 et 8eq. Lelewel, G<^og. d. moy.-age, vii, ascribes the 

 application to Endoxus of Cnidos. 



8 Grosskurd's Strabo, lib. ii. Abt. ii, ^S I, Vol, i. pp. 154 (« svq. 



