Place ant on apple and see that orbs may
be gone around! Travel far enough and east and west
change names! Straight through, beneath us, are other men."
"Feet against feet. Antipodes," I said. "All the life of
man is taking Wonder in and making Her at home!"
"So!" he answered. "Now look! The largeness of our
globe is at the equator. The great Ptolemy worked out
our reckoning. Twenty-four hours, fifteen degrees to each,
in all three hundred and sixty degrees. It is held that the
Greeks and the Romans knew fifteen of these hours. They
stretched their hand from Gibraltar and Tangier, calling
them Pillars of Hercules, to mid-India. Now in our time
we have the Canaries and the King of Portugal's new islands
--another hour, mark you! Sixteen from twenty-four
leaves eight hours empty. How much of that is water and
how much is earth? Where ends Ocean-Sea and where begins
India and Cathay, of which the ancients knew only a
part? The Arabian Alfraganus thinks that Ptolemy's degrees
should be less in size. If that be right, then the earth
is smaller than is thought, and India nearer! I myself
incline to hold with Alfraganus. It may be that less than
two months' sailing, calm and wind, would bring us to
Cipango. Give me the ships and I will do it!"
"You might have had them yesterday."
To a marked extent he could bring out and make visible
his inner exaltation.
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