1885.] 
The Form of the Earth. 
3i9 
II. THE FORM OF THE EARTH. 
By Major-General A. W. Drayson, F.R.A.S. 
jT is generally allowed by all thinking men that those 
subjects which have been taught us in our youth, and 
wiuc i have been accepted without investigation, be- 
cause presented to us under the influence of authority, are 
very likely to be incorrect. 
. ls a natural tendency in the human mind to follow 
in le beaten track, and when once any problem has been 
accepted as correct it is very difficult for us to get rid of the 
piejudice which we possess in its favour. Consequently 
error is too often perpetuated by the teaching of the schools, 
and that which, if a novelty, would he examined in a careful 
and critical manner, is merely accepted as an article of 
taith not of reason. When this article of faith is ques- 
tioned, or doubted, by a reasoner, he not unusually causes 
nutation in the mind of the man who has accepted on Faith. 
or demonstrations, produce little or no 
ettecit, and the erroneous teaching is handed down from 
geneiation to generation. To he able to prove that which 
we believe is therefore of the greatest importance, and the 
rust demonstrations here given will refer to the form of the 
Earth. * 
Even in the present day there are a few persons who assert 
that the Earth is not spherical in form, hut is flat, and thev 
state that the apparent changes in position of the celestial 
bodies can be satisfactorily accounted for if the Earth is a 
flat surface. 
There is no science which is more rigidly accurate than 
Geometry. The laws referring to circles, spheres, triangles 
& c., are immutable : it is not unusual therefore to find & im- 
postors in Science, or those who are merely veneered in 
Science, sneering at Geometry, because such men would 
prefer that theories and opinions should take the place of 
faCts. More especially is this the case when such men have 
gained a reputation for their visionary theories, and fear that 
an investigation of the rigid laws of Geometry will prove 
their theories untenable. Men who assert that the 
Earth is a flat surface will listen to no geometrical proofs. 
Men who make assertions relative to other supposed forms 
or movements of the Earth endeavour to ignore Geometry, 
