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The following paragraph is from Doris Allen’s
book Primitive Notions, p. 47. (1) For many hundreds of years, early
humans believed that the earth was flat.
(2) There was at least one good reason why they believed this: the
evidence of the senses seemed conclusive.
(3) The world (allowing, of course, for mountains and valleys) seemed
indeed flat. (4) There were many level
fields and plains; the surfaces of lakes, of calm seas, and of any standing
water were perfectly level; from the top of any hill, the earth appeared to
stretch out flat before the beholder.
(5) Was it not obvious then that it was the nature of the earth to be
flat and the sky to be curved? (6) Furthermore, the clear line of the horizon
suggested that if one went far enough, one would most likely come to the end
of the earth and fall off. (7) Perhaps
some imaginative people thought of the edge of the earth as a cliff with an
infinite abyss below—a place to avoid.
(8) Such thoughts led naturally to the view of the earth as a large,
flat object, like a solid wheel, or even perhaps a platter, so it was
difficult to imagine the earth as having any other shape. (9) Nothing visible gave the least
indication that the earth might be spherical.
(10) To these early humans, the evidence of the senses was undoubtedly
reliable, so that it was taken for granted that the earth was really flat. Ø
The Works Cited
page entry would look like this: Allen, Doris. Primitive
Notions. |