THE DOCTRINE OF A ROUND EARTH 69 



could scarce have been less fanciful than those of a Moro 

 Islander now. They were woven of dreams, and dreams to 

 which, in their essence, the greater part of the human race 

 still clings. But at least in the fifth century before Christ, 

 while sacrifices were yet offered before the golden masque of 

 Pallas in the Parthenon, and the wisest among men still con- 

 sulted the oracle at Delphi, to a slender band a vision of the 

 truth had come. As the truth spread and the earth widened 

 the sacrifices ceased ; the Homeric gods, too proximate to 

 men, retired from Olympus to take up their residence in the 

 vaguer spaces of the sky. 



In another century Aristotle could note without surprise, 

 without even naming the source or indicating the methods 

 employed, that the geometers had put a girdle round the earth. 

 Not merely its figure but its actual size had been determined. 

 How was it done ? 



