The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1875-04-21
is THE WORLD ROUND?
A Scientific Hereto Loses 80, 900
and Lands In, jail for His
Unbelief.
From &c New Y0rk World.

~ =
From the New York World. sr,.s :
f. Let not the civilized New Yorker
then. hold mp his hand in Pharisais
horror when we inform him that there
now langnishes in one of Her Britain
ic Majesty's prisons q worthy anc
respectable Englishman of good es
tate who has brought himself to thai
sad condition solely by his profound
and passionate conviction that the
world is not in the least ronnd, but
on the contrary. as fat as q pancake
He bears a heroic name-immortal
in the annals of liberty--no less il
lustrious a name, indeed, than John
Hampden. He has worked out q
cosInography of his own, which he
calls the ''Eetetic system" in name
at least most modest and and com
mendable system. its vital principle,
If its name means anything, being
that the whole universe rests upon a
mark of Interrogation. His earlier
efforts at undermining the accepted
theory of things were as gentle and
persuasive as became an innovator
bent not upon uttering oracles
but upon propOunding queries
He addressed himself to no less a
parsonage than Mr. A. r. Wallace,
the great ally of Darwin, and in
duced that eminent man of science
to join him in submitting the Copper
nican theory to an ordeal by wager.
This sounds perhaps like a joke.
But it was no joke at all. Mr.. Hamp-
den and Mr.. Wallace each deposited
in Coutt's Bank the comfortable sum
of 9500 sterling, and. selecting Mr..
Walsh. of the Field. as their umpire.
proceeded to ascertain whether it
could or could not be shown that
there exists perceptible curvature
in the surface of six miles of water.
The experiment was tried upon the
canal of the Bedford Level. A con-
pie of leveling rods were placed in
the canal six miles apart, with a
third rod midway between the two.
This having been done, acurate OBJ
servations made at each extremity
with an ordinary theodolite showed
i'm a moment that there existed in
the distance of six miles a percepti-
bic curvature, the extent of which
proved upon careful mathematical
calculation exactly to correspond
with the ordinary calculation of the
length of the earth's radius. and
with the average curvature of her
surface. This result satisfied the
umpire. 1t satisfied Mr.. Wallace,
who, upon the umpire's decision.
drew forth from Coutts's bank the
comfortable Thousand pounds therein
deposited. But it did not sat-
isfy Mr.. John Hampden. That
gentleman wrote to Mr.. Walsh
and Mr.. Wallace inviting them to
make new trial on the ground that
they had failed ''to make due allow
ance for the natural dip of the line
of vision," the effect of which, as
Mr.. Hampden assured them. is to
induce q man unskilled in the ze-
tetic philosophy the imagine, when
he looks along plain surface, that
he perceives convexity, the truth
being that he perceives nothing of
the sort. but lis only suffering from a
defect in his eyesight not tremediable
otherwise than by the stimulating
effect upon the mental faculties of
zetetic truth Mr., Wallace replied
by slapping his hand, as it were, up
on his pocket which contained the
thousand pounds. Mr.Walsh replied
that he had other fish to fry, and
cared not to did any further into the
dip of the line of vision. Whereup-
on Mr. Hampden naturally fell into
rage, and began straightway to
persecute his hide.armed antago-
nists. He sent them postal cards
every day, denouncing them as
''thieyes.i' swindlers," +" and 'scommon
cheats - and as they took no notice
of these observations he proceeded
to send similar postal.cards to- all
their friends and acquaintances.
This at last drove Mr. Wallance into
the courts for relief The courts
awarded Mr.. Wallace 9600 sterling
with costs, making, as it appears,
something like .500lb. in all "sent
to the bad'' by the modern Pto-
lemaic philosopher in his vain at
tempt to bring single Copernican
to reason. How many men in this
generation would spend as mpch to
save a single heathen soal, or TO con-
verts Brigham Young fsom the error
of his matrimonial ways ?asa f'aa rs