THE EARTH FRAME 
209 
of another earth line is afforded us by the hori- 
zon. This horizon curve can be seen to the 
best advantage from the cross-trees of a ship in 
mid-ocean. ‘There the circle that sweeps about 
one is quite complete ; and the line one sees is 
the edge where the world slips down beyond 
our vision. Again, how perfectly that curve is 
drawn ; and on a clear day how embracing is 
its sweep! A similar, but perhaps not such a 
perfect, effect can be seen on the alkaline plains 
looking out from some tall butte across the 
lowly buffalo grass, with the wavering heat of 
the plains rising upward instead of the ocean 
moisture. Itis a smaller circle, a smaller earth 
line, that is thus revealed to us; but what a 
hint it gives us of the greater lines which must 
be merely its enlargement ! 
The demarkations of light and dark against 
thesky are about the only glimpses of the earth- 
curves that are vouchsafed to us; but the prin- 
ciple of rotundity—the curved line so often 
called “ the line of beauty ”—is shown to us in 
almost all the earth formations. The zodphite, 
that builds a rounded cell in the rounded coral, 
making by aggregation the round island in the 
Southern seas, is typical of all creation. The 
law of the circle that curves the waves of light 
Horizon 
lines. 
The curved 
line. 
