by which the times of sunset at two places could be compared.  He was acquainted with the fact, which must indeed have been known from the very earliest times, that the illumination of the moon is derived entirely from the sun.  He knew that an eclipse of the moon was due to the interposition of the earth which cuts off the light of the sun.  It was, therefore, plain that an eclipse of the moon must be a phenomenon which would begin at the same instant from whatever part of the earth the moon could be seen at the time.  Ptolemy, therefore, brought together from various quarters the local times at which different observers had recorded the beginning of a lunar eclipse.  He found that the observers to the west made the time earlier and earlier the further away their stations were from Alexandria.  On the other hand, the eastern observers set down the hour as later than that at which the phenomenon appeared at Alexandria.  As these observers all recorded something which indeed appeared to them simultaneously, the only interpretation was, that the more easterly a place the later its time.  Suppose there were a number of observers along a parallel of latitude, and each noted the hour of sunset to be six o’clock, then, since the eastern times are earlier than western times, 6 p.m. at one station A will correspond to 5 p.m. at a station B sufficiently to the west.  If, therefore, it is sunset to the observer at A, the hour of sunset will not yet be reached for the observer at B. This proves conclusively that the time of sunset is not the same all over the earth.  We have, however, already seen that the apparent time of sunset would be the same from all stations if the earth were flat.  When Ptolemy, therefore, demonstrated that the time of sunset was not the same at various places, he showed conclusively that the earth was not flat.

As the same arguments applied to all parts of the earth where Ptolemy had either been himself, or from which he could gain the necessary information, it followed that the earth, instead of being the flat plain, girdled with an illimitable ocean, as was generally supposed, must be in reality globular.  This led at once to a startling consequence.  It was obvious that there could be no supports of any kind by which this globe was sustained; it therefore followed that the mighty object must be simply poised in space.  This is indeed an astonishing doctrine to anyone who relies on what merely seems the evidence of the senses, without giving to that evidence its due intellectual interpretation.  According to our ordinary experience, the very idea of an object poised without support in space, appears preposterous.  Would it not fall? we are immediately asked.  Yes, doubtless it could not remain poised in any way in which we try the experiment.  We must, however, observe that there are no such ideas as upwards or downwards in relation to open space.  To say that a body falls downwards, merely means that it tries to fall as nearly