. The magazine of American history with notes and queries. es of science that he would not trust his own judgment with it, andcommanded the most learned astronomers and cosmographers of Spainto assemble and examine the would-be discoverer. What a spectacle thisboard of investigators would make if it could be reproduced in tableaux atthe Worlds Fair ! Some of the eminent scholars in this gathering thoughtit great presumption in an ordinary man to suggest a form for the worlddifferent from the prevailing opinion ! Is there any one so foolish asto believe there are antipodes with their feet oppos
. The magazine of American history with notes and queries. es of science that he would not trust his own judgment with it, andcommanded the most learned astronomers and cosmographers of Spainto assemble and examine the would-be discoverer. What a spectacle thisboard of investigators would make if it could be reproduced in tableaux atthe Worlds Fair ! Some of the eminent scholars in this gathering thoughtit great presumption in an ordinary man to suggest a form for the worlddifferent from the prevailing opinion ! Is there any one so foolish asto believe there are antipodes with their feet opposite to ours? askedone grave theologian. 4< People who walk with their heels upward andtheir heads hanging down ? Where the trees grow with their branchesdownward ? And where it rains and hails and snows upward ? Theidea of the roundness of the earth has been the cause of inventing thisfable of the antipodes! said another. To believe this doctrine wemust discredit the Bible. And then ensued a long theological discus- A GROUP OF COLUMBUS PORTRAITS ?57. KING FERDINAND AND QUEEN ISABELLA. [Facsimile of an exceedingly rare contemporary printsVol. 258 A GROUP OF COLUMBUS PORTRAITS sion, in which what is said in Psalms and in St. Pauls Epistle to theHebrews, about the heavens being like the covering of a tent, was quotedto prove the flatness of the earth. Columbus was informed that theopposite half of the earth was a chaos, a gulf, or a mere waste of a ship succeed in reaching the extremity of India it could neverget back again. The roundness of it would present a kind of mountain,up which no vessel could ever sail. Columbus spoke eloquently in hisown behalf when permitted, and with an air of confidence and author-ity. Some of his auditors were convinced by his skillful reasoning, butnot the majority, and the conference was suddenly adjourned withoutdefinite result by the sudden departure of the Castilian court for thescenes of battle. Other conferences
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