The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1884-12-20
for human being to occupyp exclaimed

1--WE have something analogous to il
on the EARTH" continued DIR. Vankirk.
1--WE are in precisely such position
when we climb hill, and houses built
on hillside stand at some other than a
right angle to its sloping side. Between
ourselves and our friends on the cubical
planet there is, however, this important
difference. We actually ascend hills
when we slant, but, by hypothesis, our
friend walks along a surface all plane
when he slants, and the nearer he gets
to its edge the more he
slants. The effect upon him can,
however, be none other than
that he is going up an ACTIVITY, and
this must be his impression. For, con-
slider the matter for moment A
mountain peak is higher than the COM
mon surface of the earth only because
its summit is further away from the
earth's center than is the plain at its
base. Our traveller on the cubical
planet gets at every step further from
the center of the cube, and consequently
at every step he ascends an ACTIVITY
and slants his body slightly to keep in
line with gravity. The further he gets
from the starting point we have given
him the more he slants-that is to say,
the sleeper becomes his hill, until at
last, when he comes to the edge of the
plane; he seems to stand upright once
more, and on the summit of a mountain,
and instead of lying on his face to look
down the jumping-off place he looks
down into two valleys from his noun
tain top, the one valley being the plane
along which he has been iourneying
and the other being the adjacent side
of the cube. If, instead of going to the
edge of the plane he has Travelled to one
of the four corners he has only assembled,
and, with ever increasing difficulty, one
OF four enormous, overlapping noun
tains as much higher in proportion than
the ridge along the edge, as the hy-
pothenuse of a right angled triangle is
longer than either of its sides. Do you
get my meaningp"
Eyes, replied the writer, ''the man
has been going up hill all the way, fol
he has been getting further from the
center of the cube"
.'And if he had gone to the opposite
edge of the square he would have gone
up another hill, and so on, all saround
the square, which would be an oblong
hollow, or cusp, or cup" continued the
doctor, ''having as its lowest point the
middle point of the square. There can
be no escape from this conclusion You
or l, if we were now placed on such a
planet, would know that in walking to
one of its edges we had gone up HILL
and this view of the matter would be
confirmed when, placing round stone
on our mountain side, we had seen it
roll down into the valley What would
be true, however, is that it would have
rolled merely from the edge of plane
square surface to its middle point in or
der to get as near as possible to the
center of the cube, which is the radatng
point of gravitation."
Exactly, said the writer. 'sNow."
DIR. Vankirk went on. warming up to his
subject, "the surface along which our
friend has been journeying is, by n.y.
pothesis, plane-a square-and a line
drawn diagonally from one corner to an
other will lie wholly on the surface, will
be straight line, and will be the short
est distance between those two points.
But the man who has climbed to the
summit of one of those towering noun
tains will know with certainty that
nothing can shake, that that line which
joins the two corners is a curve Begin
ming at his feet, running into the vale,
and then ascending to the summit of the
opposite mountain. What to him will
be the straight line and shortest dis
lance from the one cliffto the other will
then really be curve arched over the
square from corner to corner But
he himself, though gifted with the
mind OF a Newton or a Pascal,
could never discover this, for it is
only by hypothesis that we ourselves
know otherwise. The system of which
he was part would compel him to hold
the straight line to be the curve and the
curve the straight line. Gravitation
would have done the business for his
mind Light, which seems to us to
come in straight lines, to him wolld
come in curves, SO that, as said at first,
he would always see around a corner,
just as we can when light is refracted
or reflected. But the main point is that
his straight line being entirely different
from ours, his mathematics, astronomy
molecular physics and physical science
in general would be different They
would be logical, no doubt, and since
science would explain phenomena and
easily lead to the foretelling of events
like eclipses.and so on, it would be true
quite as true as our own absolutely
true mathematics. +"
'But it seems to me, DOCTOR" said
the writer. "that though our traveller on
the cubical planet would feel in his body
and legs that he had gone up hill, yet,
in casting his eyes back, it would all
seem plane to him, just as it really
isl
mo, no, my son, replied the doctor,
grinning; ''we don't let our eyes correct
our other senses in that way at all. If
the mans eyes told him that he had
traversed plane and his legs said he
had gone up hill he would call the work
of his eyes an optical illusion. We on
the earth have numbers of such things.
Our eyes, for instance, when we look
down long stretch of railroad track,
tell us that the rails come together at
last. With our legs, however, we cor
rect the error, just as our friend, the
traveller of whom we are talking, would
correct with his legs the errors of his
eyes, Thus ended DR.. Vankirk's dis
sertation.
Among other noteworthy views OF
the matter taken by different men was
that of Dr. Charles F. Winkie, the dis
opponent of the nebular
theory in any form in which it may
present its ugly face to him. Upon be-
ing asked for his opinion Dr. Winkie
said he had no doubt whatever about |
Arndt's discovery. Such find was
sure to be made. When the doctrine of |
the mythus threatened to carry all be-
fore it, and it was almost universally |
believed that the story of ancient Troy
was a sun myth, DR.. Schliemann was
raised up to discover the site of Troy |
and thus knock the theory in the head.