The weekly herald. [volume] (Amarillo, Tex.) 1906-19??, 1908-12-24
! PRIMITIVE MANS IDEA
OF THE UNIVERSE,



form OF the universe and the position
Of the earth in It form most inter-
eating phase OF the elevation OF seien.
/ tlfio thought. In tho speculations
we find the germs OF modern astron-
omy, physics and chemistry, and they
are therefore worth serious study.
A brief discussion OF these primitive
ideas Is contained In an article con-
trlbuted 10 tho Revue scientiflquo
(Paris. october 81 by Jules sageret.
Says this writer;
eve may reconstruct, in imaglna-
ton, the earth as primitive man con-
celyed Il, II We are able TO dlyest our
minds OF all acquired notions, The
earth Is plain OF indefinite extent.
on which rests an immense solid
dome, the sky. The sun, the moon,
and the stars follow tho surface OF
this dome and bury themselves in the
ground whence they have emerged
at a point opposite 10 that OF their
DISAPPEARANCE. This evidently Indl-
Gates the existence OF openings COM
munlcating with subterranean
world lighted by the sun during our
night and by the stars In our day.
This imaginative restoration con-
forms to the beliefs OF certain savage
peoples. +. 10 is fortunate for the
progress OF science that this cosmo-
logy was not adopted by every one,
not that II is absurd, but on the con-
trsry because II is so reasonable that
II might have suitlced humanity for
long time. :. ~ We might
then have still been awaiting Col
umbus.
Local or other reasons caused dir.
ierent oosmologles to be imagined.
In general the idea OF flat earth
was retained. I. Many peo-
plies believed that the abode of man
was surrounded with water. They
knew OF the grea' seas beyond which
no land had been found and were
thus led to believe that these we're
the limits OF the world, How then
explain the courses OF the stars?
Doubtless the stars we're not like ter.
restrial fires: their divine nature
enabled them to resist the trials that
would have eternally extinguished
the latter. Nevertheless, thanks to
tho powerful impulse OF analogy It
was often preferred to spare the sun.
which is hot, a nightly bath in the
cold ocean waves.
Several methods were devised to
this effect. In the indies, at the
yedic and Brahamlc epoch, the sun
was 81 opposed to be a disk with two
faces. one obscure, the other lumin-
Gus; II showed the latter in IFS jour
ney from east To west. and the form
er on It's return course.
Or. more simply still. the writer
goes on to say, the light of the sun
was sometimes believed TO extend on
" to a certain distance. The Chinese
even calculated the value OF the ra-
dius Of the constant circle OF illum-
nation, beyond which 1t was always
night Dwellers far inland. who
knew not the sea, were inclined to
use mountains in their cosmogonies.
The Hindus near the Himalayas
thus believed the sun to circle about
Merou, the golden mountain, whose
shadow caused night. This noun.
tain was finally located at the North
Pole. the Chaldean cosmology was
also Of the mountain type: only the
mountain in this ease was finally
Identified with the whole earth, On
the other hand, the Egyptians be-
lieyed in an ultraterrestrial Nile,
along which the Sun-go6 sailed in
his bark. II was thus the mountain
cosmologies that came nearer 10 the
truth. Thales. however, the first
OF the Greek philosophers who really
desired TO get at the realty of things,
built his system on that OF the Egyp-
tians rather than on the more ration
al plan Of the Chaldeans, BY his
time. the Egyptian cosmology had be-
come somewhat modified, however.
"The Egyptians. who had at first
a solid sky supported by four noun
tains. did away with II, little by
little. The celestial Nile grew until
II became sea, continuous with the
terrestrial ocean, on which the earth
flosted. BY analogy with the sun,
the moon was carried by bark along
this sea. and the same was imagined
first Of the piarets and finally OF all
the stars Aided by the conception
Of Nou. the primordial water, the
universe became an indefinite hemis-
pheric air-bubble. on the lower flat
part Of this bubble the earth floated
ssQurh was tn roanninoy tbat