1 MILE'S OBSERVATION 229 



tin- mountains and houses move while you remain at 

 \\ ( 11, it is just the opposite: we move and the 

 mountains, houses, and trees stand still.' Do you 

 think many would agree with him? Why! they 

 woul.l laugh at him, for each one sees, with his own 

 eyes, mountains running, houses traveling. I tell 

 you, my children, they would laugh at him." 



"But, Uncle" began Claire. 



"There is no but. It has been done. They have 

 done worse than laugh; they have become red with 

 anger. You would have been the first to laugh, my 

 girl." 



"I should laugh at somebody asserting that the 

 car moves and not the houses and mountains?" 



* ' Ves, for an error that accompanies us all 

 through life and that every one shares, is not so eas- 

 ily removed from the mind." 



"It is impossible!" 



"It is so possible that you yourself, at every turn, 

 make the mountain move and the car that carries us 

 standstill." 



"I do not understand." 



"You make the round earth, the car that bears us 

 through celestial space, stand still; and you give mo- 

 tion to the sun, the giant star that makes our earth 

 seem as nothing by comparison. At least, you >ay 

 the sun rises, pursues its course, sets, and begins its 

 course again the next day. The enormous star 

 moves, the humble earth tranquilly watches its mo- 

 tion." 



"The sun does certainly seem to us," said Jules, 

 "to rise at one side of the sky and set at the other, 



