THE STORY-BOOK OF SCIENCE 



Europe, Mont Blanc, whose height is 4810 meters, 

 would be represented by a grain of sand half as 

 large as the other. " 



" When you told us of the roundness of the earth/' 

 put in Claire, "I thought of the enormous moun- 

 tains and deep valleys, and asked myself how, with 

 all these great irregularities, the earth could never- 

 theless be round. I see now that these irregulari- 

 ties are a mere nothing in comparison with the im- 

 mensity of the terrestrial ball." 



"An orange is round in spite of the wrinkles in its 

 skin. It is the same with the earth: it is round in 

 spite of the irregularities of its surface; it is an 

 enormous ball sprinkled with grains of dust and 

 sand proportioned to its size, and these are moun- 

 tains. " 



''What a big ball!" exclaimed Emile. 



"To measure the circumference of the earth is not 

 an easy thing, you may be sure ; and yet they have 

 done more than that: they have weighed the im- 

 mense ball as if it were possible to put it in a scale- 

 pan with kilograms for counterweights. Science, 

 my dear children, has resources demonstrating in all 

 its grandeur the power of the human mind. The 

 immense ball has been weighed. How it was done 

 cannot be explained to you to-day. No scales were 

 used, but it was accomplished by the power of 

 thought with which God has endowed us, to solve, to 

 His glory, the sublime enigma of the universe ; by the 

 force of reason, for which the burden of the earth is 

 not too heavy. This burden is expressed by the fig- 



