No More Learning

All foul with gore that banquet room
Immense and dreadful in its gloom.
He, lofty towering, strikes the skies
(Snatch him, ye Gods, from mortal eyes ! ) :
No kindly look e'er crossed his face,
Ne'er oped his lips in courteous grace :
The limbs of wretches are his food :
He champs their flesh, and quaffs their blood. Isaw, when his enormous hand
Plucked forth two victims from our band,
Swung round, and on the threshold dashed, While all the floor with blood was splashed:
I saw him grind them, bleeding fresh,
And close his teeth on quivering flesh :
Not unrequited : such a wrong
My wily chieftain brooked not long :
E'en in that dire extreme of ill
Ulysses was Ulysses still.
For when o'ercome with sleep and wine
Along the cave he lay supine,
Ejecting from his monstrous maw
Wine mixed with gore and gobbets raw,
We pray to Heaven, our parts dispose,
And in a circle round him close.
With sharpened point that eyeball pierce
Which 'neath his brow glared lone and fierce, Like Argive shield or sun's broad light,
And thus our comrades' death requite.
But fly, unhappy, fly, and tear
Your anchors from the shore : For vast as Polyphemus there
Guards, feeds, and milks his fleecy care, On the sea's margin make their home And o'er the lofty mountains roam
A hundred Cyclops more.
2ENEAS AND THE CYCLOPS.
Three moons their circuit nigh have made, Since in wild den or woodland shade
My wretched life I trail,
See Cyclops stalk from rock to rock, And tremble at their footsteps' shock,
And at their voices quail.
Hard cornel fruits that life sustain,
And grasses gathered from the plain.
Long looking round, at last I scanned
Your vessels bearing to the strand. Whate'er you proved, I vowed me yours : Enough, to 'scape these bloody shores. Become yourselves my slayers, and kill This destined wretch which way you will. "
E'en as he spoke, or e'er we deem, Down from the lofty rock
We see the monster Polypheme Advancing 'mid his flock,
In quest the well-known shore to find,
Huge, awful, hideous, ghastly, blind.
A pine tree, plucked from earth, makes strong His tread, and guides his steps along.
His sheep upon their master wait,
Sole joy, sole solace of his fate.
Soon as he touched the ocean waves
And reached the level flood, Groaning and gnashing fierce, he laves
His socket from the blood,
And through the deepening water strides, While scarce the billows bathe his sides. With wildered haste we speed our flight, Admit the suppliant, as of right,
And noiseless loose the ropes; Our quick oars sweep the blue profound: The giant hears, and towards the sound
With outstretched hands he gropes. But when he grasps and grasps in vain, Still headed by the Ionian main,
To heaven he lifts a monstrous roar,
Which sends a shudder through the waves, Shakes to its base the Italian shore,
And echoing runs through JStna's caves. Prom rocks and woods the Cyclop host
Bush startled forth, and crowd the coast.
THE RETURN OF THE GOLDEN AGE.
There glaring fierce we see them stand In idle rage, a hideous band,
The sons of iEtna, carrying high
Their towering summits to the sky :
So on a height stand clustering trees, Tall oaks, or cone-clad cypresses,
The stately forestry of Jove,
Or Dian's venerable grove.
Fierce panic bids us set our sail, And stand to catch the first fair gale. But stronger e'en than present fear The thought of Helenus the seer, Who counseled still those seas to fly Where Scylla and Charybdis lie : That path of double death we shun, And think a backward course to run. When lo ! from out Pelorus' strait
The northern breezes blow : We pass Pantagia's rocky gate, And Megara, where vessels wait,
And Thapsus, pillowed low. So, measuring back familiar seas,
Land after land before us shows The rescued Achemenides,
The comrade of Ulysses' woes.
THE RETURN OF THE GOLDEN AGE.
(The Messianic Eclogue. ) By VIRGIL.
(Translated by Sir Charles Bowen. )
Come is the last of the ages, in song Cumaean foretold Now is the world's grand cycle begun once more from of
old.
Justice the Virgin comes, and the Saturn kingdom again ; Now from the skies is descending a new generation of men. Thou to the boy in his birth, — upon whose first opening
eyes — The iron age shall close, and a race that is golden arise,
THE RETURN OF THE GOLDEN AGE. 391
Chaste Lucina be kindly ! He reigns — thy Phœbus — to-day ! Thine to be Consul, thine, at a world's bright ushering in, Pollio, when the procession of nobler months shall begin ; Under thy rule all lingering traces of Italy's sin,
Fading to naught, shall free us from fear's perpetual sway.
Life of the gods shall be his, to behold with the gods in their might Heroes immortal mingled, appear himself in their sight,
Rule with his Father's virtues a world at peace from the sword. Boy, for thine infant presents the earth unlabored shall bring
Ivies wild with foxglove around thee wreathing, and fling
Mixed with the laughing acanthus the lotus leaf on the sward ; Homeward at eve untended the goat shall come from the mead Swelling with milk; flocks fearless of monstrous lions shall feed; Even thy cradle blossom with tender flowers, and be gay.
Every snake shall perish ; the treacherous poison weed
Die, and Assyrian spices arise unsown by the way.
When thou art able to read of the heroes' glories, the bright
Deeds of thy sire, and to know what is manhood's valor and might, Plains will be turning golden, and wave with ripening corn ;
Purple grapes shall blush on the tangled wilderness thorn ;
Honey from hard-grained oaks be distilling pure as the dew ; Though of our ancient folly as yet shall linger a few
Traces, to bid us venture the deep, with walls to surround
Cities, and, restless ever, to cleave with furrows the ground.
Then shall another Tiphys, a later Argo to sea
Sail, with her heroes chosen ; again great battles shall be ;
Once more the mighty Achilles be sent to a second Troy.
Soon when strengthening years shall have made thee man from a boy, Trader himself shall abandon the deep ; no trafficking hull
Barter her wares ; all regions of all things fair shall be full.
Glebe shall be free from the harrow, the vine no pruner fear ;
Soon will the stalwart plowman release unneeded the steer.
Varied hues no longer the wool shall falsely assume.
Now to a blushing purple and now to the saffron's bloom,
Cropping the meadow, the ram shall change his fleece at his need ; Crimsoning grasses color the lambs themselves as they feed.
" Ages blest, roll onward ! " the Sisters of Destiny cried Each to her spindle, agreeing by Fate's firm will to abide. Come to thy godlike honors ; theJtime well-nigh is begun ;
ove great scion and son !
Lo, how the universe totters beneath heaven's dome and its weight,
Land and the wide waste waters, the depths of the firmament great ! Lo, all nature rejoices to see this glorious day I
Offspring loved of immortals, of
392 A SACRED ECLOGUE IN IMITATION OF VIRGIL.
Ah, may the closing years of my life enduring be found, — Breath sufficient be mine thy deeds of valor to sound ; — Orpheus neither nor Linus shall ever surpass my lay ;
One with mother immortal, and one with sire, at his side, To Orpheus Calliopeia, to Linus Apollo allied.
Pan, were he here competing, did all Arcadia see,
Pan, by Arcadia's voice, should allow him vanquished of me.
Baby, begin thy mother to know, and to meet with a smile ;
Ten long moons she has waited, and borne her burden the while. Smile, my babe ; to his feast no god has admitted the child, Goddess none to his kisses, on whom no parent has smiled.
A SACRED ECLOGUE IN IMITATION OF VIRGIL'S « POLLIO. "
ALEXANDER POPE.
[Alexander Fops : An English poet ; born May 22, 1688. His whole career was one of purely poetic work and the personal relations it brought him into. He published the "Essay on Criticism" in 1710, the "Rape of the Lock" in 1711, the "Messiah" in 1712, his translation of the Iliad in 1718- 1720, and of the Odyssey in 1725. His " Essay on Man," whose thoughts were mainly suggested by Bolingbroke, appeared in 1733. His " Satires," modeled on Horace's manner, but not at all in his spirit, are among his best-known works. He died May 30, 1744. ]
Ye Nymphs of Solyma ! begin the song :
To heav'nly themes sublimer strains belong. The mossy fountains, and the sylvan shades, The dreams of Pindus and th' Aonian maids, Delight no more — O thou my voice inspire Who touched Isaiah's hallowed lips with fire !
Rapt into future times, the Bard begun :
A Virgin shall conceive, a Virgin bear a Son !
Prom Jesse's root behold a branch arise,
Whose sacred flow'r with fragrance fills the skies : Th' ^Ethereal spirit o'er its leaves shall move,
And on its top descends the mystic Dove.
Ye Heav'ns ! from high the dewy nectar pour,
And in soft silence shed the kindly show'r !
The sick and weak the healing plant shall aid, Prom storms a shelter, and from heat a shade.
All crimes shall cease, and ancient fraud shall fail ; Returning Justice lift aloft her scale;
A SACRED ECLOGUE IN IMITATION OF VIRGIL.
Peace o'er the World her olive wand extend, And white-robed Innocence from heav'n descend. Swift fly the years, and rise th' expected morn! Oh spring to light, auspicious Babe, be born ! See Nature hastes her earliest wreaths to bring, With all the incense of the breathing spring : See lofty Lebanon his head advance,
See nodding forests on the mountains dance :
See spicy clouds from lowly Saron rise,
And Carmel's flow'ry top perfumes the skies ! Hark ! a glad voice the lonely desert cheers ; Prepare the way ! a God, a God appears :
A God, a God ! the vocal hills reply,
The rocks proclaim th' approaching Deity.
Lo, earth receives him from the bending skies ! Sink down ye mountains, and ye valleys rise, With heads declined, ye cedars homage pay ;
Be smooth ye rocks, ye rapid floods give way ! The Savior comes ! by ancient bards foretold : Hear him, ye deaf, and all ye blind, behold !
He from thick films shall purge the visual ray, And on the sightless eyeball pour the day :
'Tis he th' obstructed paths of sound shall clear, And bid new music charm th' unfolding ear : The dumb shall sing, the lame his crutch forego, And leap exulting like the bounding roe.
No sigh, no murmur the wide world shall hear, From ev'ry face he wipes off ev'ry tear.
In adamantine chains shall Death be bound,
And Hell's grim Tyrant feel th' eternal wound. As the good shepherd tends his fleecy care,
Seeks freshest pasture and the purest air, Explores the lost, the wand'ring sheep directs, By day o'ersees them, and by night protects, The tender lambs he raises in his arms,
Feeds from his hand, and in his bosom warms ; Thus shall mankind his guardian care engage, The promised father of the future age.
No more shall nation against nation rise,
Nor ardent warriors meet with hateful eyes,
Nor fields with gleaming steel be covered o'er, The brazen trumpets kindle rage no more ;
But useless lances into scythes shall bend,
And the broad falchion in a plowshare end. Then palaces shall rise ; the joyful Son
A SACRED ECLOGUE IN IMITATION OF VIRGIL.
Shall finish what his short-lived Sire begun ;
Their vines a shadow to their race shall yield,
And the same hand that sowed, shall reap the field. The swain in barren deserts with surprise
See lilies spring, and sudden verdure rise ;
And starts, amidst the thirsty wilds to hear
New falls of water murm'ring in his ear.
On rifted rocks, the dragon's late abodes,
The green reed trembles, and the bulrush nods.
Waste sandy valleys, once perplexed with thorn,
The spiry fir and shapely box adorn :
To leafless shrubs the flow'ring palms succeed,
And od'rous myrtle to the noisome weed.
The lambs with wolves shall graze the verdant mead, And boys in flow'ry bands the tiger lead ;
The steer and lion at one crib shall meet,
And harmless serpents lick the pilgrim's feet.
The smiling infant in his hand shall take
The crested basilisk and speckled snake,
Pleased the green luster of the scales survey,
And with their forky tongues shall innocently play. Rise, crowned with light, imperial Salem, rise !
Exalt thy tow'ry head, and lift thy eyes !
See, a long race thy spacious courts adorn ;
See future sons, and daughters yet unborn,
In crowding ranks on ev'ry side arise,
Demanding life, impatient for the skies !
See barb'rous nations at thy gates attend,
Walk in thy light, and in thy temple bend;
See thy bright altars thronged with prostrate kings, And heaped with products of Sabaean springs !
For thee Idume's spicy forests blow,
And seeds of gold in Ophir's mountains glow.
See heav'n its sparkling portals wide display,
And break upon thee in a flood of day !
No more the rising Sun shall gild the morn,
Nor ev'ning Cynthia fill her silver horn ;
But lost, dissolved in thy superior rays,
One tide of glory, one unclouded blaze
O'erflow thy courts : the light himself shall shine Revealed, and God's eternal day be thine !
The seas shall waste, the skies in smoke decay,
Rocks fall to dust, and mountains melt away ; —
But fixed his word, his saving pow'r remains ;
Thy realm forever lasts, thy own Messiah reigns !
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AT THE CHRISTIAN ERA. 395
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AT THE CHRISTIAN ERA. By STRABO.
[Strabo, the leading geographer of antiquity whose work is extant, was a Greek of Pontus ; born about b. c. 62, and died after a. d. 21. He was great- great-grandson of a leading general of the father of Mithridates the Great, and grand-nephew of a governor of Colchis under that king himself. His grand father was also an important satrap. He went early to Rome, and was highly educated ; became a considerable traveler, and was long at Alexandria, studying the works of previous geographers, and astronomy and mathematics ; later re turned to Rome. He wrote a long continuation of Polybius, and "Historical Memoirs," but his great work was the one here excerpted : the first all-round treatise in the world covering at once mathematical, physical, political, and his torical geography. The mathematical part is chiefly copied from Eratosthenes and others. ]
The Earth an Island.
Perception and experience alike inform us that the earth we inhabit is an island ; since wherever men have approached the termination of the land, the sea, which we designate ocean, has been met with ; and reason assures us of the similarity of those places which our senses have not been permitted to sur vey. For in the east the land occupied by the Indians, and in the west by the Iberians and Maurusians, is wholly encompassed (by water), and so is the greater part on the south and north. And as to what remains as yet unexplored by us, because navi gators sailing from opposite points have not hitherto fallen in with each other, it is not much, as any one may see who will compare the distances between those places with which we are already acquainted. Nor is it likely that the Atlantic Ocean is divided into two seas by narrow isthmuses so placed as to prevent circumnavigation ; how much more probable that it is confluent and uninterrupted ! Those who have returned from an attempt to circumnavigate the earth do not say they have been prevented from continuing their voyage by any opposing continent, for the sea remained perfectly open, but through want of resolution and the scarcity of provision. This theory, too, accords better with the ebb and flow of the ocean, for the phenomenon, both in the increase and diminution, is everywhere identical, or at all events has but little difference, as if produced by the agitation of one sea and resulting from one cause.
396 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AT THE CHRISTIAN ERA.
Pboof of the Earth's Sphericity.
As the size of the earth has been demonstrated by other writers, we shall here take for granted and receive as accurate what they have advanced. We shall also assume that the earth is spheroidal, that its surface is likewise spheroidal, and, above all, that bodies have a tendency toward its center, which latter point is clear to the perception of the most average understand ing. However, we may show summarily that the earth is sphe roidal from the consideration that all things, however distant, tend to its center, and that everybody is attracted toward its center of gravity ; this is more distinctly proved from observa tions of the sea and sky, for here the evidence of the senses — common observation — is alone requisite. The convexity of the sea is a further proof of this to those who have sailed ; for they cannot perceive lights at a distance when placed at the same level as their eyes, but if raised on high they at once become perceptible to vision, though at the same time farther removed. So when the eye is raised it sees what before was utterly imper ceptible. Homer speaks of this when he says, —
"Lifted up on the vast wave, he quickly beheld afar. "
Sailors, as they approach their destination, behold the shore continually raising itself to their view, and objects which had at first seemed low begin to elevate themselves. Our gnomons also are, among other things, evidence of the revolution of the heavenly bodies ; and common sense at once shows us that if the depth of the earth were infinite, such a revolution could not take place.
Changes in Elevation, Tides, Etc.
Eratosthenes proceeds to tell us that the earth is spheroidal ; not, however, perfectly so, inasmuch as it has certain irregulari ties. He then enlarges on the successive changes of its form, occasioned by water, fire, earthquakes, eruptions, and the like ; all of which is entirely out of place, for the spheroidal form of the whole earth is the result of the system of the universe, and the phenomena which he mentions do not in the least change its general form, such little matters being entirely lost in the great mass of the earth. Still they cause various peculiarities in different parts of our globe, and result from a variety of causes.
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AT THE CHRISTIAN ERA. 397
He points out as a most interesting subject for disquisition the fact of our finding, often quite inland, two or three thou sand stadia from the sea, vast numbers of muscle, oyster, and scallop shells, and salt-water lakes. He gives as an instance that about the temple of Ammon, and along the road to it for the space of three thousand stadia, there are yet found a vast amount of oyster shells, many salt beds, and salt springs bub bling up, besides which are pointed out numerous fragments of wreck which they say have been cast up through some opening, and dolphins placed on pedestals, with the inscription, " Of the Delegates from Cyrene. "
Herein he agrees with the opinion of Strato the natural phi losopher, and Xanthus of Lydia. Xanthus mentioned that in the reign of Artaxerxes, there was so great a drought that every river, lake, and well was dried up : and that in many places he had seen, a long way from the sea, fossil shells, some like cockles, others resembling scallop shells, also salt lakes in Armenio, Matiana, and Lower Phrygia, which induced him to believe that sea had formerly been where land now was. Strato, who went more deeply into the causes of these phenomena, was of opinion that formerly there was no exit to the Euxine as now at Byzantium, but that the rivers running into it had forced a way through, and thus let the waters escape into the Propontis, and thence to the Hellespont. And that a like change had oc curred in the Mediterranean. For the sea being overflowed by the rivers, had opened for itself a passage by the Pillars of Her cules, and thus much that was formerly covered by water had been left dry. He gives as the cause of this, that anciently the levels of the Mediterranean and Atlantic were not the same, and states that a bank of earth, the remains of the ancient sepa ration of the two seas, is still stretched under water from Europe to Africa. He adds that the Euxine is the most shallow, and the seas of Crete, Sicily, and Sardinia much deeper, which is occasioned by the number of large rivers flowing into the Euxine both from the north and east, and so filling it up with mud, whilst the others preserve their depth. This is the cause of the remarkable sweetness of the Euxine Sea, and of the currents which regularly set toward the deepest part. He gives it as his opinion, that should the rivers continue to flow in the same direction, the Euxine will in time be filled up; since already the left side of the sea is little else than shallows, as also Salmy- dessus (Midjeh in Roumelia), and the shoals at the mouth of
398 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AT THE CHRISTIAN ERA.
the Ister (Danube), and the desert of Scythia (Dobrudscha), which the sailors call the Breasts.
Probably, too, the temple of Amnion was originally close to the sea, though now, by the continual deposit of the waters, it is quite inland ; and he conjectures that it was owing to its being so near the sea that it became so celebrated and illustrious, and that it never would have enjoyed the credit it now possesses had it always been equally remote from the sea. Egypt, too, he says, was formerly covered by sea as far as the marshes near Pelusium, Mount Casius, and the Lake Sirbonis. Even at the present time, when salt is being dug in Egypt, the beds are found under layers of sand, and mingled with fossil shells, as if this district had formerly been under water, and as if the whole region about Casium and Gerrha had been shallows reach ing to the Arabian Gulf. The sea afterward receding left the land uncovered, and the Lake Sirbonis remained, which having afterward forced itself a passage, became a marsh. In like manner the borders of the Lake Mœris resemble a sea beach rather than the banks of a river. Every one will admit that formerly at various periods a great portion of the mainland has been covered and again left bare by the sea. Likewise that the land now covered by the sea is not all on the same level, any more than that whereon we dwell ; which is now uncovered and has experienced so many changes, as Eratosthenes has observed. Consequently in the reasoning of Xanthus there does not appear to be anything out of place.
In regard to Strato, however, we must remark that, leaving out of the question the many arguments he has properly stated, some of those which he has brought forward are quite inadmis sible. For first he is inaccurate in stating that the beds of the interior and the exterior seas have not the same level, and that the depth of those two seas is different : whereas the cause why the sea is at one time raised, at another depressed, that it in undates certain places and again retreats, is not that the beds have different levels, some higher and some lower, but simply this, that the same beds are at one time raised, at another de pressed, causing the sea to rise or subside with them ; for hav ing risen they cause an inundation, and when they subside the waters return to their former places.
The immediate cause of these phenomena is not the fact of one part of the bed of the ocean being higher or lower than an other, but the upheaval or depression of the strata on which the
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AT THE CHRISTIAN ERA. 399
waters rest. Strato's hypothesis evidently originated in the be lief that what occurs in rivers is also the case in regard to the sea ; viz. , that there is a flow of water from the higher places. Otherwise he would not have attempted to account for the current he observed at the strait of Byzantium in the manner he does, attributing it to the bed of the Euxine being higher than that of the Propontis (Marmora) and adjoining ocean (-iEgaean), and even attempting to explain the cause thereof; viz. , that the bed of the Euxine is filled up and choked by the deposit of the rivers which flow into it, and its waters in con sequence driven out into the neighboring sea. The same theory he would apply in respect to the Mediterranean and Atlantic, alleging that the bed of the former is higher than that of the latter, in consequence of the number of rivers which flow into it and the alluvium they carry along with them. In that case there ought to be a like influx at the Pillars and the Calpe, as there is at Byzantium. But I waive this objection, as it might be asserted that the influx was the same in both places, but owing to the interference of the ebb and flow of the sea
became imperceptible.
I make this inquiry rather :
If there were any reason why, before the outlet was opened at Byzantium, the bed of the Eux
ine (being deeper than either that of the Propontis or of the adjoining sea) should not gradually have become more shallow by the deposit of the rivers which flow into it, allowing it formerly either to have been a sea, or merely a vast lake greater than the Palus Meeotis? This proposition being conceded, I would next ask, whether before this the bed of the Euxine would not have been brought to the same level as the Propontis, and in that case, the pressure being counterpoised, the overflow ing of the water have been thus avoided: and if after the Eux ine had been filled up, the superfluous waters would not naturally have forced a passage and flowed off, and by their commingling and power have caused the Euxine and Propontis to flow into each other, and thus become one sea ? no matter, as I said above, whether formerly it were a sea or a lake, though latterly cer tainly a sea. This also being conceded, they must allow that the present efflux depends neither upon the elevation nor the inclination of the bed, as Strato's theoiy would have us con sider it.
River deposits are prevented from advancing further into the sea by the regularity of the ebb and flow, which continually
400 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AT THE CHRISTIAN ERA.
drive them back. For after the manner of living creatures, which go on inhaling and exhaling their breath continually, so the sea in a like way keeps up a constant motion in and out of itself. Any one may observe, who stands on the seashore when the waves are in motion, the regularity with which they cover, then leave bare, and then again cover up his feet. This agitation of the sea produces a continual movement on its surface, which even when it is most tranquil has considerable force, and so throws all extraneous matters on to the land, and
" Flings forth the salt weed on the shore. "
This effect is certainly most considerable when the wind is on the water ; but it continues when all is hushed, and even when it blows from land the swell is still carried to the shore against the wind, as if by a peculiar motion of the sea itself. To this the verses refer : —
and
" O'er the rocks that breast the flood Borne turgid, scatter far the showery spray,"
" Loud sounds the roar of waves ejected wide. "
The wave, as it advances, possesses a kind of power which some call the purging of the sea, to eject all foreign substances. It is by this force that dead bodies and wrecks are cast on shore. But on retiring it does not possess sufficient power to carry back into the sea either dead bodies, wood, or even the lightest sub stances, such as cork, which may have been cast out by the waves. And by this means, when places next the sea fall down, being undermined by the wave, the earth and the water charged with it are cast back again ; and the weight working at the same time in conjunction with the force of the advancing tide, it is the sooner brought to settle at the bottom, instead of being carried out far into the sea. The force of the river current ceases at a very little distance beyond its mouth. Otherwise, supposing the rivers had an uninterrupted flow, by degrees the whole ocean would be filled in, from the beach onward by the alluvial de posits. And this would be inevitable even were the Euxine deeper than the sea of Sardinia, than which a deeper sea has never been sounded, measuring, as it does, according to Posi- donius, about 1000 fathoms.
Some, however, may be disinclined to admit this explanation, and would rather have proof from things more manifest to the senses, and which seem to meet us at every turn. Now deluges,
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AT THE CHRISTIAN ERA. 401
earthquakes, eruptions of wind, and risings in the bed of the sea cause the rising of the ocean, as sinking of the bottom causes it to become lower. It is not the case that small volcanic or other islands can be raised up from the sea, and not large ones, nor that all islands can, but not continents, since extensive sinkings of the land no less than small ones have been known ; witness the yawning of those chasms which have engulfed whole districts no less than their cities, as is said to have hap pened to Bura, Bizone, and many other towns at the time of earthquakes : and there is no more reason why one should rather think Sicily to have been disjoined from the mainland of Italy than cast up from the bottom of the sea by the fires of ^Etna, as the Lipari and Pithecussan (Ischia) Isles have been.
However, so nice a fellow is Eratosthenes, that though he professes himself a mathematician, he rejects entirely the dictum of Archimedes, who, in his work " On Bodies in Suspension," says that all liquids when left at rest assume a spherical form, having a center of gravity similar to that of the earth : a dictum which is acknowledged by all who have the slightest pretensions to mathematical sagacity. He says that the Mediterranean, which according to his own description is one entire sea, has not the same level even at points quite close to each other; and offers us the authority of engineers for this piece of folly, notwithstanding the affirmation of mathematicians that en gineering is itself only one division of the mathematics. He tells us that Demetrius intended to cut through the Isthmus of Corinth, to open a passage for his fleet, but was prevented by his engineers, who having taken measurements reported that the level of the sea at the Gulf of Corinth was higher than at Cen- chrea, so that if he cut through the isthmus, not only the coasts near JEgina, but even iEgina itself, with the neighboring islands, would be laid completely under water, while the pas sage would prove of little value.
According to Eratosthenes, it is this which occasions the cur rents in straits, especially the current in the Strait of Sicily, where effects similar to the flow and ebb of the tide are re marked. The current there changes twice in the course of the day and night, like as in that period the tides of the sea flow and ebb twice. In the Tyrrhenian Sea the current which is called de- scendent, and which runs toward the sea of Sicily, as if it followed an inclined plane, corresponds to the flow of the tide
in the ocean. We may remark that this current corresponds to vol. v.
—26
402 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AT THE CHRISTIAN ERA.
the flow both in the time of its commencement and cessation. For it commences at the rising and the setting of the moon, and recedes when that satellite attains its meridian, whether above or below the earth. In the same way occurs the opposite or ascending current, as it is called. It corresponds to the ebb of the ocean, and commences as soon as the moon has reached either zenith or nadir, and ceases the moment she reaches the point of her rising or setting.
Size of the Inhabited Earth.
After this Eratosthenes proceeds to determine the breadth of the habitable earth: he tells us that, measuring from the meridian of Meroe (Gherri in Sennaar) to Alexandria, there are 10,000 stadia. From thence to the Hellespont about 8100. Again, from thence to the Dnieper, 5000 ; and thence to the parallel of Thule (Iceland) which Pytheas says is six days' sail north from Britain, and near the Frozen Sea, other 11,500. To which if we add 3400 stadia above Meroe in order to include the Island of the Egyptians (unknown), the Cinnamon country, and Taprobane (Ceylon), there will be in all 38,000 stadia.
We will let pass the rest of his distances, since they are some thing near ; but that the Dnieper is under the same parallel as Thule, what man in his senses could ever agree to this ? Pytheas, who has given us the history of Thule, is known to be a man upon whom no reliance can be placed, and other writers who have seen Britain and Ierne, although they tell us of many small islands round Britain, make no mention whatever of Thule. The length of Britain itself is nearly the same as that of Kel- tica (France and Belgium), opposite to which it extends. Altogether it is not more than 5000 stadia in length, its outer most points corresponding to those of the opposite continent. In fact the extreme points of the two countries lie opposite to each other, the eastern extremity to the eastern, and the western to the western ; the eastern points are situated so close as to be within sight of each other, both at Kent and at the mouths of the Rhine. But Pytheas tells us that the island (of Britain) is more than 20,000 stadia in length, and Kent is some days' sail from Keltica. With regard to the locality of the Ostimii, and the countries beyond the Rhine as far as Scythia, he is alto gether mistaken. The veracity of a writer who has been thus false in describing countries with which we are well acquainted
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AT THE CHRISTIAN ERA. 403
should not be too much trusted in regard to places that are unknown.
Further, Hipparchus and many others are of opinion that the parallel of latitude of the Dneiper does not differ from that of Britain ; since that of Byzantium and Marseilles are the same. The degree of shadow from the gnomon which Pytheas states he observed at Marseilles being exactly equal to that which Hipparchus says he found at Byzantium ; the periods of observation being in both cases similar. Now from Marseilles to the center of Britain is not more than 5000 stadia ; and if from the center of Britain we advance north not more than 4000 stadia, we arrive at a temperature in which it is scarcely possible to exist. Such indeed is that of Ierne. Consequently the far region in which Eratosthenes places Thule must be totally uninhabitable. By what guesswork he arrived at the conclusion that between the latitude of Thule and the Dnieper there was a distance of 11,500 stadia, I am unable to divine.
Eratosthenes being mistaken as to the breadth, is necessarily wrong as to the length. The most accurate observers, both ancient and modern, agree that the known length of the habitable earth is more than twice its breadth. Its length I take to be from the (eastern) extremity of India to the (west ernmost) point of Spain ; and its breadth from (the south of) Ethiopia to -the latitude of Ierne. Eratosthenes, as we have said, reckoning its breadth from the extremity of Ethiopia to Thule, was forced to extend its length beyond the true limits, that he might make it more than twice as long as the breadth he had assigned to it. He says that India, measured where it is narrowest, is 16,000 stadia to the river Indus. If measured from its most prominent capes, it extends 3000 more ; thence to the Caspian Gates, 14,000 ; from the Caspian Gates to the Eu phrates, 10,000 ; from the Euphrates to the Nile, 5000 ; thence to the Canopic mouth, 1300 ; from the Canopio mouth to Car thage, 13,500 ; from thence to the Pillars, at least 8000 ; which makes in all 70,800 stadia. To these, he says, should be added the curvature of Europe beyond the Pillars of Hercules, front ing the Iberians, and inclining west, not less than 3000 stadia, and the headlands, including that of the Ostimii, named Cabaeum (Cape S. Malie"), and the adjoining islands, the last of which, named Uxisama (Ushant), is distant, according to Pytheas, a three days' sail. But he added nothing to its length by enum erating these last, —viz. the headlands, including that of the
404 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AT THE CHRISTIAN ERA.
Ostimii, the island of Uxisama, and the rest ; they are not situ ated so as to affect the length of the earth, for they all lie to the north, and belong to Keltica, not to Iberia ; indeed, it seems but an invention of Pytheas. Lastly, to fall in with the general opinion that the breadth ought not to exceed half the length, he adds to the stated measure of its length 2000 stadia west, and as many east.
Further, endeavoring to support the opinion that it is in accordance with natural philosophy to reckon the greatest di mension of the habitable earth from east to west, he says that according to the laws of natural philosophy, the habitable earth ought to occupy a greater length from east to west than its breadth from north to south. The temperate zone, which we have already designated as the longest zone, is that which the mathematicians denominate a continuous circle returning upon itself. So that if the extent of the Atlantic Ocean were not an obstacle, we might easily pass by sea from Iberia to India,1 still keeping in the same parallel ; the remaining portion of which parallel, measured as above in stadia, occupies more than a third of the whole circle ; since the parallel drawn through Athens, on which we have taken the distances from India to Iberia, does not contain in the whole 200,000 stadia.
Here, too, his reasoning is incorrect. For this speculation respecting the temperate zone which we inhabit, and whereof the habitable earth is a part, develops properly on those who make mathematics their study. But it is not equally the province of one treating of the habitable earth. For by this term we mean only that portion of the temperate zone where we dwell, and with which we are acquainted. But it is quite possible that in the temperate zone there may be two or even more habitable earths, especially near the circle of latitude which is drawn through Athens and the Atlantic Ocean. 2
1 Columbus followed out this idea.
1 This is a striking forecast. The parallel of Athens is near 38° N. L. ; this would fall between Fekin and Tokio in the Orient, between Washington and Richmond in the United States.