Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1875-04-09
Is THE WORLD ROUND?
4 Scientific Heretie Loses $4,000 and
Lands In Jail for His UnbeIIeT.

Lands In Jail Tor HIS mbetlet.
New York World
Let not the civilized New Yorker.
then, hold up his hands IN Pharisaic
horror when we inform him that there
now languishes IN one of Her Britanic
Maiesty's prisons a worthy and re-
spectacle Englishman Of good estate
who has brought himself to that sad
condition solely by his profound and
passionate conviction that the world IS
not IN the least round, but, on the con-
trary, as fiat as a pancake. He bears a
heroic name-ImmOrtal IN the annals Of
hOerty-no less illustTiOus a name, in
deed, than John Hampden. He has
worked out a cosmOgTaphy Of his own,
which he calls the "Zetetic system, IN
name at least a most modest 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 undeFminingth the accepted the
ory Of things were as gentle and per-
suasive as became an innO7atOr bent
not upon uttering oracles blt upon
prOpOunding queries. He addressed
himself to no less a parsonage than
MIR. A. Il. Wallace, the great ally of
Darwin, and induced thatemineut man
of science to Join him IN submitting
the COpernican theory TO an ordeal by
wager. This sounds perhaps like a
joke. But it was no joke at all. Mr..
Hampden and Mr.. Wallace each de-
posted in Coutt's Bank the comfort
able sum Of e500 sterling, and, select
ing Mr.. Walsh, of the Field, as their
umpire, proceeded to ascertain wheth-
er it could or could not be shown that
there exists a pefeeptible curvature
IN the surface of SIX miles of
water. The experiment was tried
upon the canal Of the Bedford Level
A couple of leveling rods were placed
in the canal six miles apart, with a
third rod midway between the two.
This having been done, accurate 6bser-
vatiOns made at each extremity with
an ordinary theOdOite showed in a mo-
ment that there existed in the distance
of six miles a perceptible curvature, the
extent of which proved upon careful
mathematical calculation exactly 20
correspond with the ordinary calcula-
ton of the length of the earth's radius,
| and with the average curvature Of her
| surface. This result satisfied the Um-
pire. 1t satisfied Mr.. Wallace, who,
upon the umpire's decision, drew
forth from COutts's bank the
comfortable thousand pounds there
in deposited. But it did not satisfy
Mr.. John Hampden. That gentleman
wrote to Mr.. Walsh and Mr.. Wallace
inviting them to make a new trial on
| the ground that they had failed ''tO
make due allowance for the natural dip
/ of the line of vision" the effect Of
which, as Mr.. Hampden assured them,
/ is to induce a man GnskIlled IN the Ze-
tetio philosophy to imagine, Whsn he
looks along a plain ssci.Tiace, that be
perceIves a cCci1vexity, the truth being
] thss-ss ne perceives nothing of the sort
but is only suffering from a defect IL
! his eYesight not remediable otherwise
than by the stimulating effect upon thS
mental faculties Of zetetic truth. Mr.
Wallace replied by siapping his hand,
as it were, upon his pocket which con,
tanned the thousand pounds. Nr
Walsh replied that he had Other
fish to fry, and cared not to
dip any further into the dip
of the line Of vision. WhereupOn Mr.
Hampden naturally fell into 2 rage
and began straightway to persecute his
hide-armed antagonists. He sent
them postal-cards every day, denOunc.
ing them as thieves" ''swindlers, -
and common cheats" and as they
took no notice Of these observations be
proceeded to send similar postal cards
TO all their friends and acquaintance
This at last drove Mr.. Wallace into
the courts for relief. The courts