The Earth is Round
BY MOTH.
WHAT tlic argument was about I do not know. I only heard the end of it. And after all," the man in pince-nez was saying, what more could you expect front people in those days ? Why, they didn't even know the earth was round."
• His friend could find no answer to this. " That's true," he said. " They used to think it was flat, didn't they?" They both uttered short, scornful laughs and, the 'bus stopping, passed out of my life.
•
. " They didn't even know the earth was round." The words had been spoken with so lively a contempt, the point ,had claimed—and had been conceded—Ism+ crush- ing finality, that the phrase went on echoing impressively in my mind. At first I accepted it at the speaker's value : as a damning indictment of the intellectual shortcomings of our ancestors. But gradually I began to forget the manner and to question the matter of the charge;
It would be ridiculous to pretend that it does not matter what shape the earth is. We all derive benefits (for which 1 suspect that we are not nearly grateful enough) from the fact that it is round though precisely what these benefits are I could not tell you, nor what would be the incon- veniences. attendant on any other format. Would life be less intolerable on an octagon ? I hardly think so. The question, in and' case, does not arise. The earth is round, and we know it.
But are we any better off for knowing it ? I suppose the knowledge is a source of comfort, and occasionally per ha.psof profit, to certain kinds of scientist. It is a help if you want to fly to Australia. It creates employment among the makers of globes and also, for that matter, of betnispheris. It has reduced by one the number of con- troversies, and by millions the number of cranks.
But. what difference does it make to yon and me, know- ing that the earth is round ? Absolutely none, as far as I eun see._ The earth does not, in the first place, look round. 1 do not know a single spot on its surface front which the eye of a layman could deduce its rotundity. Set him (the layman) down on the sea-shore, arouse his suspicions, en- courage hint to observe the passage over the horizon of sonic vessel or other, and he might, I grant you, assure himself that his planet at this particular point was in some way curved or bent. But suppose for a moment (or for longer, if you find the supposition a fascinating one) that your layman is it Swiss. He, poor fellow, has no sea-shore on which to indidge his cosmic curiosities. All around hint are the Alps, grand indeed, but almost aggressively tut. symmetrical. Far below hint is the Lake of Geneva, as Ilat, to all appearances, as a pancake. • As for the earth being round, there is simply no sign of it at all. All the evidence points the other way. If lie really believes that the earth is round, he believes it against his better ilidgement. By increasing his knowledge, you have under- m tied his incredulity. The next thing you know, he will he believing in Empire Free Trade, or the Romance of Big Business.
Knowledge is facts. Some facts arc useful, some arc interesting, and some are both. The best facts are those which, are the most useful and the most interesting to the greatest number of people ; and from these best facts should be selected the iron rations (as it were) of know- ledge, the irreducible minimum of information which .every man. ought to possess, and the lack of which can be meld against hint as a reproach. Now the knowledge that the earth is round is useful to very few and interesting to none. It is perhaps the most
Supremely boring piece of information that mankind has ever acquired. Indeed, the more I think about it, the more fervently I hope that I shall meet again that man with pince-nez who said of our aneesters with such withering, such bumptious, and such baseless scorn : " They didn't wets know the earth was round." Ile will have a rough time of it.
" You, Sir," I shall say (for Sir, thanks to Dr. Johnson on the one hand and to democracy on the other, is now more effective as a prelude to abuse than as a token of respect), " you, Sir, have implied in my hearing that its knowledge of the earth's shape is it fair criterion of the enlightenment of an age. Now you, I take it, know Ihat the earth is round ? " (here he will nod, or make ne stuttering assent.) "And may I ask you what use you have ever made of this knowledge, either in public or in private ? Have you ever boasted of it ? Incorporated it in any literary composition : such as a Sonnet : a Short Story about a Man who Collimated Suicide : it Limerick: a Letter to The Times? Have you ever even alluded to it in con- versation ? " (Here the man will moisten his dry lips and prepare to defend himself with his umbrella. I shall disarm him.) " I put it to you, Sir, that so far from making even the most modest and deprecating reference to this priceless piece of knowledge, you have employed all the arts of circumlocution and suppression to disown it. Time and again you have spoken, not only of the Ends, but of the Four Corners of the Earth. You have asked at bookstalls for the Wide (and not for the Round) World Magazine. All over its surface you have declared to acquaintances unexpectedly encountered, in tones of the most profound conviction, that the world is a Small Place : never a Round one. Oh no, Sir, never is Round one. This piece of second-hand information, the accuracy of
which you are incapable of verifying for yourself Of course, it will be one in the eye for me if he turns out to be the Geographer Royal.
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