THE EARTH 133 



by the Greeks and Romans to end at the Pillars of 

 Hercules. 



For centuries the world was considered flat ; for 

 centuries it was considered the hub of the universe, 

 and crystal spheres and other machinery were in- 

 vented to carry the Sun and the planets round it. 

 It was only natural ; and the first men who allowed 

 their reason to give the lie to their senses and to 

 their common-sense, and to assert that the Earth 

 spun on its axis like a top and whirled round the 

 Sun, must have had almost incredible mental force 

 and courage. 



Even after the heliocentric idea had been pro- 

 mulgated, even after Pythagoras and Archimedes 

 and Ptolemy had adumbrated the truth, conserva- 

 tive mankind still clung to its old belief, and not 

 for many hundreds of years did the heliocentric 

 doctrine become the belief of thinking men. Not 

 till Copernicus, in 1 543, published his famous work, 

 in which he taught that the Earth spun on its axis 

 and revolved round the Sun — not till then had the 

 doctrine any grip on the mind of man. Even then 

 it had to fight for its existence. Lord Bacon would 

 have none of it, and to the Church it was anathema. 

 On March 5th, 1616, the Church decreed : "And 

 whereas it hath also come to the knowledge of the 

 said Holy Congregation that the false Pythagorean 

 doctrine of the mobility of the earth and the im- 



