SLO W PROGRESS OF TR UTH. 107 



endeavoured to come to the assistance of the weakness of the 

 human mind. And as each creed asserts itself to be the best, 

 to the exclusion of every other, men began to imagine for the 

 earth a navel, and placed it where it was supposed pleasing 

 to the divinity. 



The Greek priests dismissed a couple of eagles, one towards 

 the west, the other towards the east ; the place where these 

 favourite birds of Jove, of the " Father of gods and men," 

 encountered each other, was to be considered the "navel" 

 of the earth. It chanced to be Delphos, whose oracle was 

 the most esteemed in the ancient world ; the sacerdotal caste 

 accumulated there immense wealth. The Greek priests pru- 

 dently refrained from dealing with the difficult problem of the 

 earth's solid support. 



The Hebrew pontiffs, however, were not so reserved. 

 After having made Jerusalem the "navel of the world," 

 they allowed for the earth itself seven solid columns as a 

 foundation. The question of the Antipodes, in which the 

 greatest intellects of antiquity believed, Pythagoras, Plato, 

 and Aristotle, was thus pontifically judged and condemned. 

 And Christians who preferred to follow the Judaical observ- 

 ance of external ceremonies to a true comprehension of the 

 spirit of the Gospels, exaggerated the application of this 

 sentence. 



The dogmatic condemnation of the existence of the Anti- 

 podes long arrested man in his search for that fourth quarter 



