Page 305 - Third Book of Reading Lessons

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THIRD BOOK OF
the pole, while all the stars in the southern hemi­ sphere diminish in altitude. On the other hand, as we approach the equator, the polar star, and all the stars of the northern hemisphere, decrease in altitude, whilst those of the southern hemisphere are seen to increase ; appearances which could not possibly take place, had the earth been a plane or a cylinder. We may also add, that the change in the degrees of lon­ gitude in di erent latituds, and the ct, that eclipses of the moon are seen sooner by those who live east­ ward, than by those who live westward, in the ratio of one hour to fteen degrees of longitude, are addi- tional proofs of the earth's spherical rm.
3. Nor can any objection, arising om the ine-. qualities on the earth's sur ce, invalidate this hy­ pothesis; as it may be easily shown by a simple . proportion, that the highest mountains on the earth would not, on one of our largest globes, be the hun­ dredth part of an inch in elevation; and as this would not be discernible on an arti cial globe, so neither ought the greatest inequalities on the earth prevent us om considering it spherical. It is not true, as stated by certain authors: that some of the Fathers of the Church went so r as to pronounce it , heresy to believe there were such people as the an­ tipodes. This calumny was unded on the ct, that the Church did condemn certain heretics, who, from vague notions of the rm of the earth, con unded the antipodes with a pretended race of human be-, ings, who, they said, were not descended om Adam, nor redeemed by Christ.
4. So many united proo , as well as the accuracy of so many astronomical observations, all of which have been made nd calculated upon the supposition