If
the Earth were
only a few feet in diameter
floating a few feet above a field some-
where, people would come from everywhere
to marvel at it. People would walk around it, marvell-
ing at its big pool of water, its little pools and the water
flowing between the pools. People would marvel at the bumps on
it, and the holes in it, and they would marvel at the very thin
layer
of gas surrounding it and the water suspended in the gas. The
people would marvel at all the creatures walking around the surface
of the ball, and all the creatures in the water. The people would
declare it precious because it was the only one, and they would
protect it so that it would not be hurt. The
ball would be the greatest wonder known, and people would
come to behold it, to be healed, to gain knowledge, to know beauty
and to wonder how it could be. People would
love it, and defend it with their lives, because they
would somehow know that their lives, their own
roundness, could be nothing without
it.
If the Earth were only a
few feet in diameter.