Part 6

Prof. Gilman--Dear Sir: A week ago I wrote you a letter to tell you that I should be glad to receive your opinion of the "Hundred Proofs that the Earth is Not a Globe," of which work 5,000 copies are now in circulation. I wrote this work (26 pages) in one week, without neglecting my daily business: surely, you can reply to it in a week from this time. I will give you from one to four pages, if you wish that amount of space, and send you fifty copies, if you desire to have them, without putting you to the slightest expense. I will even take any suggestion you please to make as to the title which shall be given to this extra edition of my work containing your reply or opinions. I should be sorry to be under the necessity of printing this letter, with others, in my next edition, in the place of any such reply or expression of opinion; for I feel sure there is no one in Baltimore who is more capable of giving an opinion on this great subject. Trusting to hear from you in a few days, I am, Dear Sir, Yours truly,

William Carpenter.

71 Chew Street, Baltimore, October 22, 1886.

Prof. Gilman--Sir: This is the fifth letter--and the last--to you, asking you for an expression of your opinion concerning the "One Hundred Proofs that the Earth is Not a Globe." Which would you prefer--to see my words, or yours, in print? I give you a week in which to decide.

Truly, William Carpenter.

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY, OF BALTIMORE.

We are indebted to "Scribner's Monthly" for the following remarks concerning this institution:--"By the will of Johns Hopkins, a merchant of Baltimore, the sum of $7,000,000 was devoted to the endowment of a University and a Hospital, $3,500,000 being devoted to each. This is the largest single endowment ever made to an institution of learning in this country. To the bequest no burdensome conditions were attached."... "The Physiological Laboratory of the Johns Hopkins has no peer in this country, and the other laboratories few equals and no superiors."

In the First Annual Report of the University (1876) we read:--"Early in the month of February, 1874, the Trustees of the University having been apprised by the Executors of Johns Hopkins, of the endowment provided by his will, took proper steps for organization and entering upon the practical duties of the trust, and addressed themselves to the selection of a President of the University. With this view the Trustees sought the counsel and advice of the heads of several of the leading seats of learning in the country, and, upon unanimous recommendation and endorsement from these sources, the choice fell upon Mr. Daniel C. Gilman, who, at the time, occupied the position of President of the University of California.

"Mr. Gilman is a graduate of Yale College, and for several years before his call to California, was a Professor in that institution, taking an active part in the organization and development of 'The Sheffield Scientific School of Yale College,' at New Haven. Upon receiving an invitation to Baltimore, he resigned the office which he had held in California since 1872, and entered upon the service of The Johns Hopkins University, May 1, 1875."--Galloway Cheston.

"In the hunt for truth, we are not first hunters, and then men; we are first and always men, then hunters."--D. C. Gilman, Oct., 1883.

The "One Hundred Proofs that the Earth is Not a Globe" have been running around within the observation of the master huntsman and his men for a year or more: now let the hunters prove themselves to be men; and the men, hunters. It is impossible to be successful hunters for Truth, if Error be allowed to go scot-free. Nay, it is utterly impossible for the Johns Hopkins University to answer the purpose of its founder if its hunters for Truth do not first hunt Error with their hounds and hold it up to ridicule, and then, and always, keep a watchful eye for the Truth lest they should injure it by their hot haste or wound it with their weapons. Prof. Daniel C. Gilman, we charge you that the duties of your office render it imperative that, sooner or later, you lead your men into the field against the hundred proofs, to show the world that they are hunters worthy of the name--if, in your superior judgment, you decide that there is Error to be slain--or, show that your hunters are worthy of the better name of men, by inducing them to follow and sustain you, out of the beaten track, in your endeavors to uphold God's Truth, if, in your superior judgment, you tell them, "There is a Truth to be upheld!"

[End of the Appendix to the Fifth Edition. Nov. 9, 1886.]

PROFESSOR PROCTOR'S PROOFS.

"A proof, a proof!" cries Student Brown; says Proctor, "Very well, If that is all you want, indeed, I've plenty I can tell: But really I have scarcely time, or patience, now, to do it; You ought to know the earth's a globe, then, as a globe you'd view it. I knew it long ago: in truth, 'twas taught me in my cot, And, then, too old was I to doubt--too young to say 'twas not!" "And you have never questioned it?" "Why should I, now, friend Brown? I took it all for granted, just as daddy laid it down. And as my duty clearly was,--no other way I saw it-- And that's the reason why, of course, a globe I always draw it. And so you want a proof! Ah ha: just cross the broad Atlantic, And then a proof so strong you'll have, with joy 'twill send you [frantic!" "You mean, that I shall see the ships come round the old earth's side-- And up--and o'er the 'watery hill'--as into view they glide! No, Proctor, no: you say, yourself, the earth so vast in size is, The surface seems a level one--indeed, to sight, it rises. And ships, when coming into view, seem 'bearing down upon us.' No, Proctor, let us have a proof--no, no, come--mercy on us!" "Well, Brown, I've proofs that serve to show that earth, indeed, [a ball 'tis; But if you won't believe them--well, not mine but yours the fault is. Why, everybody, surely, knows a planet must be round, And, since the earth a planet is, its shape at once is found. We know it travels round the sun, a thousand miles a minute, And, therefore, it must be a globe: a flat earth couldn't spin it. We know it on its axis turns with motion unperceived; And therefore, surely, plain it is, its shape must be believed. We know its weight put down in tons exactly as we weigh'd it; And, therefore, what could clearer be, if we ourselves had made it? We know its age--can figures lie?--its size--its weight--its motion; And then to say, ''tis all my eye,' shows madness in the notion. Besides, the other worlds and suns--some cooling down--some hot!-- How can you say, you want a proof, with all these in the pot? No, Brown: just let us go ahead; don't interfere at all; Some other day I'll come and bring proof that earth's a ball!" "No, Proctor, no:" said Mr. Brown; "'tis now too late to try it:-- A hundred proofs are now put down (and you cannot deny it) That earth is not a globe at all, and does not move through space: And your philosophy I call a shame and a disgrace. We have to interfere, and do the best that we are able To crush your theories and to lay the facts upon the table. God's Truth is what the people need, and men will strive to preach it; And all your efforts are in vain, though you should dare impeach it. You've given half your theory up; the people have to know it:-- You smile, but, then, your book's enough: for that will plainly [show it. One-half your theory's gone, and, soon, the other half goes, too: So, better turn about, at once, and show what you can do. Own up (as people have to do, when they have been deceived), And help the searcher after Truth of doubt to be relieved. 'The only amaranthine flower is virtue;'--don't forget it-- 'The only lasting treasure, Truth:'--and never strive to let it."

ODDS AND ENDS.

"We do not possess a single evident proof in favor of the rotation"--of the earth--"around its axis."--Dr. Shoepfer.

"To prove the impossibility of the revolution of the earth around the sun, will present no difficulty. We can bring self-evident proof to the contrary."--Dr. Shoepfer.

"To reform and not to chastise, I am afraid is impossible.... To attack views in the abstract without touching persons may be safe fighting, indeed, but it is fighting with shadows."--Pope.

"Both revelation and science agree as to the shape of the earth. The psalmist calls it the 'round world,' even when it was universally supposed to be a flat extended plain."--Rev. Dr. Brewer. [What a mistake!?]

"If the earth were a perfect sphere of equal density throughout, the waters of the ocean would be absolutely level--that is to say, would have a spherical surface everywhere equidistant from the earth's centre."--English "Family Herald," February 14, 1885.

"The more I consider them the more I doubt of all systems of astronomy. I doubt whether we can with certainty know either the distance or magnitude of any star in the firmament; else why do astronomers so immensely differ, even with regard to the distance of the sun from the earth? some affirming it to be only three, and others ninety millions of miles."--Rev. John Wesley, in his "Journal."

"I don't know that I ever hinted heretofore that the aeronaut may well be the most sceptical man about the rotundity of the earth. Philosophy imposes the truth upon us; but the view of the earth from the elevation of a balloon is that of an immense terrestrial basin, the deeper part of which is that directly under one's feet. As we ascend, the earth beneath us seems to recede--actually to sink away--while the horizon gradually and gracefully lifts a diversified slope, stretching away farther and farther to a line that, at the highest elevation, seems to close with the sky. Thus, upon a clear day, the aeronaut feels as if suspended at about an equal distance between the vast blue oceanic concave above and the equally expanded terrestrial basin below."--Mr. Elliott, Baltimore.

In the "Scientific American," for April 27, 1878, is a full report of a lecture delivered at Berlin, by Dr. Shoepfer, headed "Our Earth Motionless," which concludes thus:--"The poet Goethe, whose prophetic views remained during his life wholly unnoticed, said the following: 'In whatever way or manner may have occurred this business, I must still say that I curse this modern theory of cosmogony, and hope that perchance there may appear in due time some young scientist of genius who will pick up courage enough to upset this universally disseminated delirium of lunatics. The most terrible thing in all this is that one is obliged to repeatedly hear the assurance that all the physicists adhere to the same opinion on this question. But one who is acquainted with men knows how it is done: good, intellectual, and courageous heads adorn their mind with such an idea for the sake of its probability; they gather followers and pupils, and thus form a literary power; their idea is finally worked out, exaggerated, and with a passionate impulse is forced upon society; hundreds and hundreds of noble-minded, reasonable people who work in other spheres, desiring to see their circle esteemed and dear to the interests of daily life, can do nothing better or more reasonable than to leave to other investigators their free scope of action, and add their voice in the benefit of that business which does not concern them at all. This is termed the universal corroboration of the truthfulness of an idea!'"