started centuries ago with the idea that independent scientific investigation is unsafe-that theology must intervene to superintend its methods, and the Biblical record, as an historical compendium. and scientific treatise, be taken as a standard to determine its results. So began this great modern

war.

GEOGRAPHY.

The first typical battle-field to which I would refer is that of Geography-the simplest elementary doctrine of the earth's shape and surface.

Among the legacies of thought left by the ancient world to the modern, were certain ideas of the rotundity of the earth. These ideas were vague; they were mixed with absurdities; but they were germ ideas, and, after the barbarian storm which ushered in the modern world had begun to clear away, these germ ideas began to bud and bloom in the minds of a few thinking men, and these men hazarded the suggestion that the earth is roundis a globe.1

1 Most fruitful among these were those given by Plato in the Timæus. See, also, Grote on Plato's doctrine of the rotundity of the earth. Also Sir G. C. Lewis's Astronomy of the Ancients, London, 1862, chap. iii., sec. i. and note. Cicero's mention of the antipodes and reference to the passage in the Timaus are even more remarkable than the original, in that they much more clearly foreshadow the modern doctrine. See Academic Questions, ii., xxxix. Also, Tusc. Quest., i., xxviii., and v., xxiv.

The greatest and most earnest men of the time took fright at once. To them, the idea of the earth's rotundity seemed fraught with dangers to Scripture: by which, of course, they meant their interpretation of Scripture.

Among the first who took up arms against the new thinkers was Eusebius. He endeavored to turn off these ideas by bringing science into contempt, and by making the innovators understand that he and the fathers of the Church despised all such inquiries. Speaking of the innovations in physical science, he said: "It is not through ignorance of the things admired by them, but through contempt of their useless labor, that we think little of these matters, turning our souls to better things."

Lactantius asserted the ideas of those studying astronomy to be "mad and senseless." "

1 See Eusebius, Præp. Ev., xv., 61.

2 See Lactantius, Inst., 1., iii., chap. 3. Also, citations in Whewell, Hist. Induct. Sciences, Lond., 1857, vol. i., p. 194. To understand the embarrassment thus caused to scientific men at a later period, see Letter of Agricola to Joachimus Vadianus in 1514. Agricola asks Vadianus to give his views regarding the antipodes, saying that he himself does not know what to do, between the Fathers on one side and learned men of modern times on the other. On the other hand, for the embarrassment caused to the Church by this mistaken zeal of the Fathers, see Kepler's references and Fromund's replies; also De Morgan, Paradoxes, p. 58. Kepler appears to have taken great delight in throwing the views of Lactantius into the teeth of his adversaries,

But the attempt to "flank" the little phalanx of thinkers did not succeed, of course. Even such men as Lactantius and Eusebius cannot pooh-pook down a new scientific idea. The little band of thinkers went on, and the doctrine of the rotundity of the earth naturally led to the consideration of the tenants of the earth's surface, and another germ idea was warmed into life-the idea of the existence of the antipodes, the idea of the exist ence of countries and men on the hemisphere op posite to ours.

At this the war-spirit waxed hot. Those great and good men determined to fight. To all of them such doctrines seemed dangerous; to most of them they seemed damnable. St. Basil and St. Ambrose were tolerant enough to allow that a man might be saved who believed the earth to be round, and inhabited on its opposite sides; but the great majority of the Fathers of the Church

} 1 Another germ idea, etc. See Plato, Timaus, 62 C., Jowetť's translation, N. Y. ed. Also Phado, pp. 449, d seq. Also Cicero, Academic and Tusc. Disput., ubi supra. For citations and summaries, see Whewell, Hist. Induct. Sciences, vol. i, p. 189, and St. Martin, Hist. de la Géog., Paris, 1873, p. 96. Also Leo pardi, Saggio sopra gli errori popolari degli antichi, Firenze, 1881; chap. xil., p. 184, et seq.

'For opinion of Basil, Aubrose, and others, see Lecky, B of Rationalism in Europe, New York, 1872, vol i, p. 979, nota, Also, Latronne, in Revue des Deux Mondes, March, 1834.

utterly denied the possibility of salvation to such misbelievers.

Lactantius asks: “ Is there any one so

senseless as to believe that there are men whose footsteps are higher than their heads?-that the erops and trees grow downward?-that the rains and snow and hail fall upward toward the earth? .. But if you inquire from those who defend these marvelous fictions, why all things do not fall into that lower part of the heaven, they reply that such is the nature of things, that heavy bodies are borne toward the middle, like the spokes of a wheel; while light bodies, such as clouds, smoke, and fire, tend from the centre toward the heavens on all sides. Now, I am at loss what to say of those who, when they have once erred, steadily persevere in their folly, and defend one vain thing by another."

St. Augustine seems inclined to yield a little in regard to the rotundity of the earth, but he fights the idea that men exist on the other side of the earth, saying that "Scripture speaks of no such descendants of Adam."

But this did not avail to check the ides. What may be called the flank movement, as represented by Eusebius, had failed. The direct battle given

Lactantius, Angustine, and others, had failed; the sixth century, therefore, the opponents of the new ideas built a great fortress and retired

into that. It was well built and well braced. It was nothing less than a complete theory of the world, based upon the literal interpretation of texts of Scripture, and its author was Cosma Indicopleustes.'

According to Cosmas, the earth is a parallelo gram, flat, and surrounded by four great seas. A the outer edges of these seas rise immense wa closing in the whole structure. These walls su port the vault of the heavens, whose edges a cemented to the walls; walls and vault shut in th earth and all the heavenly bodies. The whole o this theologic, scientific fortress was built moi carefully, and, as was then thought, most script urally.

Starting with the expression, Το ἅγιον κοσμικόν applied in the ninth chapter of Hebrews to the tabernacle in the desert, he insists, with other in terpreters of his time, that it gives a key to the whole construction of the world. The universe is

1 For Lactantius, see Instit., iii., 24, translation in the Ante Nicene Library; also, citations in Whewell, i., 196, and in St. Mar tin, Histoire de la Géographie, pp. 216, 217. For St. Augustine': opinion, see the Civ. D., xvi., 9, where this great Father of the Church shows that the existence of the antipodes "nulla ratione credendum est." Also, citations in Buckle's Posthumous Works, vol. ii., p. 645. For a notice of the views of Cosmas in connection with those of Lactantius, Augustine, St. John Chrysostom, and others, see Schoell, Histoire de la Littérature Grecque, vol. vii., pp. 87, et seq.