The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1875-04-24
Is the World ROundf

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Lands in jail for His Unbelief.
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
majesty's prisons worthy and respect
able Englishman of good estate who
has brought himself to that sad condi-
ton solely by his profound and pas
sionate conviction that the world is not
in the least round, but, on the contrary,
as dat as pancake. He bears heroic
name-immortal in the annals of lib
erty-no less illustrious a name, in
deed, than John Hampden. He has
which he calls the zetetic SYSTEM" in
name at least most modest and COM
mendable system, it's vital principle, if
it's 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 parsonage than Mr.. A. R. Wal
lace, the great ally of Darwin, and in
duced that eminent man of science to
join him in submitting the Copernican
theory to an ordeal by wager. This
sounds perhaps like joke. But it was
no joke at all. Mr.. Hampden and Mr..
Wallace each deposited in Coutt's bank
the comfortable sum of E5OO 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 Ca
nal of the Bedford Level. A couple of
levelingrods were placed in the canal
six miles apart, with q third rod
midway between the two. This
having been done, accurate obeer-
vations made at each extremity with
an ordinary theodolite showed in mo-
ment that there existed in the distance
of six miles perceptible curvature, the
extent OF which proved upon careful
respond with the ordinary calculation
of the length of the earth's radius, and
with the average curvature of her sur
face. This result satisfied the umpire.
It 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 satisfy Mr.. John Hampden. That
gentleman wrote to Mr.. Walsh and Mr.
Wallace inviting them to make n 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 unskilled in the ze-
tetic philosophy to imagine, when he
looks along plain surface, that he per-
ceives a convexity, the truth being that
he perceives nothing of the sort, but is
only suffering from defect in his eye
sight not remediable otherwi than by
the stimulating effect upon the mental
faculties of zetetic truth. Mr.. Wallace
replied by slapping his hand, as it were,
upon his pocket which contained the
that he had other fish to fry, and cared
the line of vision. Whereupon Mr..
Hampden naturally fell into q rage, and
began straightway to persecute his hide
armed antagonists. He sent them
postal cards every day, denouncing
them rs thieves" swindlers," and
" common cheats :" and as they took no
notice of these observations he pro
ceeded to send similar postal cards to |
all their friends and acquaintance.
This at last drove Mr.. Wallace into the
courts for relief. The courts awarded
Mr. Wallace e6O0 sterling with costs,
as it appears, something like
Ell 400 or 81, 500 in all ''sent to the bad"
by the modern Ptolemaic philosopher
in his vain attempt to bring single
to reason. How many men
in this generation would spend as much
to save a single heather soul, or to con-
vert Brigham Young from the error of
his matrimonial ways?