* * * * *

The fathers of the church considered the earth as a great ship,
surrounded by water, with the prow to the east and the stern to the
west. We still find in Cosmas, a monk of the fourteenth century, a sort
of geographical chart, in which, the earth has this figure. Even among
the ancients, though many of their geometricians had acknowledged the
sphericity of the globe, it was for a long time imagined that the earth
was a third longer than it was broad, and thence arose the terms of
_longitude_ and _latitude_. St. Athanasius expresses himself most warmly
against astronomers. "Let us stop the mouths of these barbarians," he
exclaims, "who, speaking without proof, dare assert that the heavens
also extend under the earth."

* * * * *

Augustus gave an admirable example how a person who sends a challenge
should be treated. When Marc Antony, after the battle of Actium, defied
him to single combat, his answer to the messenger who brought it was,
"Tell Marc Antony, if he be weary of life, there are other ways to end
it; I shall not take the trouble of becoming his executioner."

* * * * *

An Irish gentleman, whose lady had absconded from him, cautioned the
public against trusting her in these words:--"My wife has eloped from me
without rhyme or reason, and I desire no one will trust her on my
account, for I am not married to her."

* * * * *