Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1885-02-13

on the earth. continued DIR. VankIrk.
We are in precisely such Il position
when we climb Il hill. and houses built
on a hillside stand at some other than a
RIGHT an@lc to it, ~loping side. Between
ourselves and Our friends on the cuhical
planet there is. however. this important
difference. We actually ascend hills
when we slant. but. by hypothesis. our
friend walks along surface all plane
when he >lant>. and the nearer he gets
to lis edge the more he
~lant>. The effect upon him can,
however. be none other than
that he is going up an acclivitv, and
this must be his impression. For, con-
slider the matter for a moment. A
mountain peak is higher than the COM
mon surface of the earth only because
its summit is further away from the
earihS center than is the plain at its
base. Our traveller on the cubical
planet gets ut every step further from
the center of the cube, and consequently
AT every step he asccnds an acclivity
and >lantS 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 mountain,
and instead of lying on his face to look
down the jumping-otf place. he looks
down into two valleys from his noun
tain top. the one valley being the plane
along which he has been journeying
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 aSccnded.
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
pothcnu>e of a right angled triangle is
longer than either of its sides. Do you
get my mcaning?'
"YcS.' replied the writer. "the man
has been going up hill all the way, for
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
uI iHOiHtl Hlll, anu 81 OIl, all iTOuIu
the square. which would be an oblong
hollow, or cuSp, or cup" continued the
doctor. ''having rs its lowest point the
middle point of the square. There can
be no escape from this conclusion. You
or |. 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 rs near as possible to the
center of the cube, which is the radating
point of gravitation."
"Exacily," said the writer. Now"
DR.. Vankirk went on, warming up to his
subject, 1.-The surface along which our
friend has been journeying is, by hy-
pothesis. Il plane--a square-and line
drawn diagonally from one corner to an
other will lie wholly on the surface. will
be a 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 a certainty that
nothing can shake, that that line which
| joins the two corners is 4 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
tance from the one cliilto the other will
! thnn n11,- ha ornhaI q I,
square from corner to corner. But
he himself. though gifted with the
mind of Newton or a Pascal.
could never discover this, for it il
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. Gravtation
would have done the business for his
mind. Light, which seems to us to
come in straight lines, to him would
come in curves. SO that, as said at first,
| he would always see around 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 eclipscs 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
is"
mo, no. my son" replied the doctor.
| grinning; 1--WE don't let our eyes correct
the mans eyes told him that he had
travcrscd a 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 Il 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 DIR. Charles +. Winkie, the dis
tinguished 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 sun myth. DIR. Schliemann was
raised up 20 discover the site of Troy
and thus knock the theory in the head
So it is with the discovery of the cubical
planet. 1t had properly been delayed
| until the npb;llar hypOthpSiS and the dc.