December 21, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



603 



against the learning of the pagan Greeks. 

 A new theory of the universe, according to 

 a plan which would follow their interpre- 

 tation of the Holy Scriptures, consequently 

 appeared to be a desideratum. The great 

 task of inventing this fell to Cosmas, sur- 

 named, on account of his extensive travels, 

 Indicopleustes, the Indian voyager. Ac- 

 cording to him, since the Epistle to the He- 

 brews expressly declares that the inner 

 tabernacle was a pattern of the Kingdom 

 of Heaven, it follows that, if we would 

 understand the construction of the uni- 

 verse, we can find it epitomized in the 

 description of its antetype in the Book of 

 Exodus. The table of shewbread with its 

 wavy border represents the earth sur- 

 rounded by the ocean. Therefore the 

 earth is rectangular, twice as long as it is 

 broad, its longer dimension extending east 

 and west. Beyond the ocean, as is clearly 

 proved by the existence of an outer border 

 to the table, lies another land where is situ- 

 ated the earthly paradise. That other was 

 the home of mankind until the flood, and 

 then Noah sailed across. But since that 

 daj^ the return journey has become impos- 

 sible, owing to the tempestuous weather 

 which ever prevails upon the ocean. We 

 who actually live in trans-oceanic lands 

 may be pennitted to disagree on some 

 points with the learned theologian, for we 

 have found neither the terrestrial paradise 

 nor the tree of life which it contained. At 

 the edges of this other earth were erected 

 the walls of heaven topped by a roof 

 shaped like half a cylinder. But it is a 

 two-storied building, is the universe, and 

 the firmament forms the division which is 

 at once the roof of the world and the floor 

 of heaven. Above the firmament are the 

 abodes of the blest. 



The motions of the heavenly bodies are 

 to be explained by the acti-vaties of the 

 angels. They carry the stars in orderly 

 succession over the heavens. They also 



carry the sun. Now the northern part of 

 the earth is very high, in fact rising to an 

 exceeding lofty mountain, and on their re- 

 turn journeys the sun by night and the 

 stars and moon by day are borne by the 

 angelic host behind the mountain and so 

 are not seen. In winter they go with the 

 sun near the base, and night is long; in 

 summer near the top and night is short. 



This famous system of Cosmas, the 

 crowning absurdity of medieval science, 

 the culminating flower from seeds of wilful 

 ignorance, was indeed the climax of the 

 anti-scientific spirit. After this the old 

 ideas of the constitution of the universe 

 once more began to be critically studied, 

 and once more the wheels of progress, for 

 many centuries almost stationary, began 

 to move. 



For the first hypothesis of a universe 

 which revolves around the sun, we must go 

 back many ages. In the third century be- 

 fore Christ, Aristarchus of Samos first 

 conceived this great truth. How he ar- 

 rived at this he has left us no explanation. 

 A century later a Babylonian named 

 Seleukis reaffinned the diurnal motion of 

 the earth, but for the most part, for 1,700 

 years, the voice of Aristarchus was as of 

 one crying in the wilderness. 



Then came Copernicus, one of the 

 world's great geniuses. In the work of hia 

 predecessors one must search diligently to 

 find the grain of truth among much chaff, 

 but with him the system of the universe 

 was revealed with great clearness. This, 

 substantiated by the work of Kepler, of 

 Galileo and of Newton, has formed the 

 basis of all subsequent progress. 



When once the nature of the sun had be- 

 gun to be understood, and the stars were 

 seen to be, like it, fiery orbs, it was nat- 

 ural that men should begin to think that 

 the earth itself, now seemingly cold, might 



