The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-10-04
SPIRIT or THE PRESS.
Editorial Opinions Of the Leading Journals
upon Current Topios-compiIed Every
Day for the Evening Telegraph.
is THE WORLD FLATp

the rudments again. Some of our English
scientific neighbors seem disposed to put
his maxim to the test, and have begun appa-
rently by reducing themselves to the proper
condition of idiocy. One would think that
Europe might furnish them Just now with
sufficient subjects for interest or speculation;
but, on the contrary, they have turned their
back on it, and are waging fierce war on the |
questions of whether the earth is round or
fiat, and does the sun move or stand still? A
modern Hampden, who is resolved apparently
to remain neither ''mute nor ignoble, is the
leader of the party who are going thus reso-
lutely back to first principles, and is sup
ported by number of adherents who are,
strange as it may seem, possessed of both edu-
cation and ability. They have distributed their
pamphlets and tracts broadcast in this coun-
try, thinking it worth while to warn us that
we are near the edge of the great plane, and
may inadvertently trip over the falling-off
place. They also offer reward of E100 to
any one who can "prove the rotundity or mo-
tion of the earth from Scripture, reason, or
fact We are called upon to render homage
to the Church of Rome, (which, although
she may have erred in her divinity, certainly
has nobly rejected the fallacies of spurious
science. Nothing can exceed the content
and derision with which she yet regafds the
absurdities and senseless inventions of la CO.
pernicus or aNewton"-ap piece of information
which both surprises and pains US, as we had
supposed that, however we might differ on
divine or doctrinal points with Pho Mono,
upon the one fact of the turnip shape of the
globe we live on we could sit down with him
in perfect accord.
This is not the only startling fact, however,
enunciated by Mr.. Hampden and the profess
sors of Queens College, Cambridge, who are
his coadjutors. The sun is proved, "by the
outlay only of e5, to be but eight hundred
miles distant. Being so much nearer than
Australia or our own country, we look upon
the discovery as especially lucky for England
in her present perplexity as to what to do
with her paupers. But in case communica-
tion is opened, ought Messrs. Hampden &
Co. to be allowed unmolested to plant the
flag of st. George on solar soil? Think of
the convenience of it as a penal colony for
ourselves. Imagine the Mormons whisked
permanently off into the road heretofore only
traversed by the old woman tossed up in
blanket, broom in hand Imagine us so rid
forever OF our Tammany ring, OF fever hos
pitfalls, fashionable miliners, feas, folly,
and Fisk! We begin to breathe freer at the
thought.
Our professors, however, give us additional
encouragement. Heaven, with its towers of
jasper and shining streets of gold, waits for
us Immediately below the fat surface of the
earth; and another place, which they do not
plainly mention to ears polite, is ready for
our enemies just below that again. ''They
must be there" gravely decides Mr.. Hamp-
den, 'else why are they not seen by the pow
erful telescopes used by astronomers" The
stars are mere gaseous, selfluminous bodies:
the transit of Venus zone of the most shame
less frauds ever foisted on an ignorant public
by the crafty cunning of interested profess
sionals. This is too much. We are prepared
for fraud in high places, on the bench and on
the throne; but when the stars combine
to humbug us we surrender. 1t is
rather consoling to read on the next page
that ''the measure of the worlds wickedness
is nearly full. In a year Europe will be
sacked and pillaged and become one grand
confagration, with the smoke of its torment
ascending forever and ever" We are glad of
it. When the round globe turns out to be
mere pancake, the celestial worlds mere blobs
of phosphorus, and the Evening Star herself,
by whom all lovers since Eve have sworn, an
interested professional, humbug and sham
have gone far enough. Somebody ought to
suffer. Mr.. Hampden is right. By all means
let Europe scorch fori it.
THE METHODIST BOOK CONCERN
AGAIN.
From The N Y. World.
The lawsuit for SANDER now in progress
between MIR. Goodenough and DR.. Lanahan
seems likely to furnish more authentic ac-
curate and comprehensive account of the
conduct of the Methodist Book Concern than
has hitherto been made public. The charges
which first called attention to this matter
were necessarily vague, and the refusal of the
committee appointed to investigate the mat
ter to do anything more than suppress the
matter left it in a condition still more unsat-
isfactory. 1t has occasionally cropped out
since, in debates not always conducted
with creditable temper, at confer
ences of the dignitaries of the
Methodist communion. But there has
always been apparent a lack of specification
on the one side, and desire to hush up the
whole transaction and SO save scandal on the
other The answer of the defendant in this
slander suit gives us more details than we
have hitherto had. If the suit comes to trial,
the whole truth will undoubtedly, and for the
first time be elected. And this is to be de-
voutly wished, not only on behalf of the
great religious body which has direct and
pecuniary interest in the honest and sagacious
management of the Methodist Book Concern,
but of the cause of public morals of which
that body is one of the most efficient ecclesi-
astical supports
One can partly understand the feeling
which actuated the mscaled investigating
committee in endeavoring to keep the matter
from public view, and of the zealots who es-
poused their action in the subsequent discus
sions, although nothing can justify the easy
and indiscriminate absolHtion granted by the
one nor the abusive language bestowed by
the other upon all those who differed with
them upon the policy, or the principle, of a
real investigation to be followed by the visi-
tation of real penalties upon those who
might thus have been found to be delin-