Zetetic astronomy: Earth not a globe! / An experimental inquiry into the true figure of the earth etc.

by Parallax

PENDULUM EXPERIMENTS AS PROOFS OF EARTH’S MOTION.

In the early part of the year 1851, the scientific journals and nearly all the newspapers published in Great Britain and on the Continents of Europe and America were occupied in recording and discussing certain experiments with the pendulum, first made by M. Foucault, of Paris; and the public were startled by the announcement that the results furnished a practical proof of the Earth’s rotation.

The subject was referred to in the Literary Gazette, in the following words:—“Everybody knows what is meant by a pendulum in its simplest form, a weight hanging by a thread to a fixed point. Such was the pendulum experimented upon long ago by Galileo, who discovered the well-known law of isochronous vibrations, applicable to the same. The subject has since received a thorough examination, as well theoretical as practical, from mathematicians and mechanicians; and yet, strange to say, the most remarkable feature of the phenomenon has remained unobserved and wholly unsuspected until within the last few weeks, when a young and promising French physicist, M. Foucault, who was induced by certain reflections to repeat Galileo’s experiments in the cellar of his mother’s house at Paris, succeeded in establishing the existence of a fact connected with it which gives an immediate and visible demonstration of the Earth’s rotation. Suppose the pendulum already described to be set moving in a vertical plane from north to south, the plane in which it vibrates, to ordinary observation, would appear to be stationary. M. Foucault, however, has succeeded in showing that this is not the case, but that the plane is itself slowly moving round the fixed point as a centre in a direction contrary to the Earth’s rotation, i.e., with the apparent heavens, from east to west. His experiments have since been repeated in the hall of the observatory, under the superintendence of M. Arago, and fully confirmed. If a pointer be attached to the weight of a pendulum suspended by a long and fine wire, capable of turning round in all directions, and nearly in contact with the floor of a room, the line which this pointer appears to trace on the ground, and which may easily be followed by a chalk mark, will be found to be slowly, but visibly, and constantly moving round, like the hand of a watch dial; and the least consideration will show that this ought to be the case, and will excite astonishment that so simple a consequence as this is, of the most elementary laws of Geometry and Mechanics, should so long have remained unobserved. * * * The subject has created a great sensation in the mathematical and physical circles of Paris. It is proposed to obtain permission from the Government to carry on further observations by means of a pendulum suspended from the dome of the Pantheon, length of suspension being a desideratum in order to make the result visible on a larger scale, and secure greater constancy and duration in the experiment. The time required for the performance of a complete revolution of the plane of vibration would be about 32 hours 8 minutes for the parallel of Paris; 30 hours 40 minutes for that of London; and at 30 degrees from the equator exactly 48 hours. Certainly any one who should have proposed not many weeks back to prove the rotation of the Earth upon which we stand by means of direct experiment made upon its surface would have run the risk, with the mob of gentlemen who write upon mechanics, of being thought as mad as if he were to have proposed reviving Bishop Wilkins’s notable plan for going to the North American colonies in a few hours, by rising in a balloon from the Earth and gently floating in the air until the Earth, in its diurnal rotation, have turned the desired quarter towards the suspended æronaut, whereupon as gently to descend; so necessary and wholesome is it occasionally to reconsider the apparently simplest and best established conclusions of science.”

The following is from the Scotsman, which has always been distinguished for the accuracy of its scientific papers. The article bears the initials “C. M.,” which will at once be recognised as those of Mr. Charles Maclaren, for many years the accomplished editor of that journal:—“The beautiful experiment contrived by M. Foucault to demonstrate the rotation of the globe, has deservedly excited universal interest. * * * A desire has always been felt that some method could be devised of rendering this rotation palpable to the senses. Even the illustrious Laplace participated in this feeling and has left it on record. ‘Although,’ he says, ‘the rotation of the Earth is now established with all the certainty which the physical sciences require, still a direct proof of that phenomenon ought to interest both geometricians and astronomers.’ No man ever knew the laws of the planetary motions better than Laplace, and before penning such a sentence, it is probable that he had turned the subject in his mind, and without discovering any process by which the object could be attained; but it does not follow that if he had applied the whole force of his genius to the task, he would not have succeeded. Be this as it may, here we have the problem solved by a man not probably possessing a tithe of his science or talent; and, what is very remarkable, after the discovery was made, it was found to be legitimately deducible from mathematical principles. * * * In this, as in many other cases, the fact comes first, and takes us by surprise; after which we find that we had long been in possession of the principles from which it flowed, and that, with the clue we had in our hands, theory should have revealed the fact to us long before. M. Foucault’s communication describing his experiments is in the Comptes Rendus of the Academy of Sciences, for 3rd February, 1851. His first experiments were made with a pendulum only two metres (6ft. 6¹⁄₄in.) in length, consisting of a steel wire from ⁶⁄₁₀ths to ¹¹⁄₁₀ths of a millimetre in diameter (the millimetre is the 25th part of an inch); to the lower end of which was attached a polished brass ball, weighing 5 kilogrammes, or 11 English pounds. * * * A metallic point projecting below the ball, and so directed as if it formed a continuation of the suspension wire, served as an index to mark the change of position more precisely. The pendulum hung from a steel plate in such a manner as to move freely in any vertical plane. To start the oscillatory movement without giving the ball any bias, it was drawn to one side with a cord, which held the ball by a loop; the cord was then burned, after which the loop fell off, and the vibrations (generally limited to an arc of 15 or 20 degrees) commenced. In one minute the ball had sensibly deviated from the original plane of vibration towards the observer’s left. Afterwards he experimented at the Observatory with a pendulum 11 metres (30 feet) long, and latterly at the Pantheon with one still longer. The advantage of a large pendulum, as compared with a small one, is, that a longer time elapses before it comes to a state of rest; for machinery cannot be employed here, as in a clock, to continue the motion. The pendulum is suspended over the centre of a circular table, whose circumference is divided into degrees and minutes. The vibrations are begun in the manner above described, and in a short time it is observed that the pendulum, instead of returning to the same point of the circle from which it started, has shifted to the left. If narrowly observed, the change in the plane of vibration (says M. Foucault) is perceptible in one minute, and in half an hour, “Il saute aux yeux,” it is quite palpable. At Paris the change exceeds 11 degrees in an hour. Thus, supposing the oscillations to commence in a plane directed south and north, in two hours the oscillations will point SSW. and NNE.; in four hours they will point SW. and NE.; and in eight hours the oscillations will point due east and west, or at right angles to their original direction. To a spectator the change seems to be in the pendulum, which, without any visible cause, has shifted round a quarter of a circle; but the real change is in the table, which, resting on the Earth, and accompanying it in its rotation, has performed a fourth (and something more) of its diurnal revolution.

No one anticipated such a result; and the experiment has been received by some with incredulity, by all with wonderment; and one source of the incredulity arises from the difficulty of conceiving how, amidst the ten thousand experiments of which the pendulum has been the subject, so remarkable a fact could have escaped notice so long. Fully admitting that these experiments have generally been conducted with pendulums which had little freedom of motion horizontally, we still think odd that somebody did not stumble upon the curious fact.

Though all the parts of the Earth complete their revolution in the same space of time, it is found that the rate of horizontal motion in Foucault’s pendulum varies with the latitude of the place where the experiment is made. At the pole, the pendulum would pass over 15 degrees in an hour, like the Earth itself, and complete its circuit in 24 hours. At Edinburgh, the pendulum would pass over 12¹⁄₂ degrees in an hour, and would complete its revolution in 29 hours 7 minutes. At Paris, the rate of motion is 11 degrees and 20 minutes per hour, and the revolution should be completed in 32 hours.

FIG. 31.

Let the above figure represent a portion of the Earth’s surface near the north pole N. Suppose the pendulum to be set in motion at m, so as to vibrate in the direction x y, which coincides with that of the meridian m N or m r. The Earth in the meantime is pursuing its easterly course, and the meridian line m N has come in six hours into the position n N. It has been hitherto supposed that the pendulum would now vibrate in the new direction n N, assumed by the meridian, but thanks to M. Foucault, we now know that this is a mistake. The pendulum will vibrate in a plane x n y, parallel to its original plane at m, as will be manifest if the plane of vibration points to some object in absolute space, such as a star. While the meridian line m N will in the course of 24 hours range round the whole circle of the heavens, and point successively in the direction n N, o N, p N, r N, s N, t N, and u N, the pendulum’s plane of vibration x y, whether at m, at n, at o, at p, at r, at s, at t, or at u, will always be parallel to itself, pointing invariably to the same star, and were a circular table placed under the pendulum, its plane of vibration, while really stationary, would appear to perform a complete revolution.

This stationary position of the plane of vibration at the pole seems to present little difficulty. We impress a peculiar motion on the pendulum in setting it a going. The Earth is at the same time carrying the pendulum eastward, but at the pole the one motion will not interfere with the other. The only action of the Earth on the pendulum there is that of attracting it towards its own (the Earth’s) centre. But this attraction is exactly in the plane of vibration and merely tends to continue the oscillatory motion without disturbing it. It is otherwise if the experiment is made at some other point, say 20 degrees distant from the pole. Supposing the vibrations to commence in the plane of the meridian, then as the tendency of the pendulum is to continue its vibrations in planes absolutely parallel to the original plane, it will be seen, if we trace both motions, that, while it is carried eastward with the Earth along a parallel of latitude, this tendency will operate to draw the plane of vibration away from a ‘great circle’ into a ‘small circle’ (that is, from a circle dividing the globe into two equal parts, into one dividing it into two unequal parts). But the pendulum must necessarily move in a ‘great circle,’ and hence to counteract its tendency to deviate into a ‘small circle,’ a correctory movement is constantly going on, to which the lengthening of the period necessary to complete a revolution must be ascribed. At Edinburgh the period is about 29 hours, at Paris 32, at Cairo 48, at Calcutta 63. At the Equator, the period stretches out to infinity. M. Foucault’s rule is, that the angular space passed over by the pendulum at any latitude in a given time, is equal to the angular motion of the Earth in the period, multiplied by the sine of the latitude. The angular motion of the Earth is 15 degrees per hour; and at the latitude of 30, for example, the sine being to radius as 500 to 1000, the angular motion of the pendulum will consequently be 7¹⁄₂ degrees per hour. It is, therefore, easily found. It follows that the motions of the pendulum may be employed in a rough way to indicate the latitude of a place.”[37]

[37] Supplement of the Manchester Examiner, of May 24, 1851.

Notwithstanding the apparent certainty of these pendulum experiments, and the supposed exactitude of the conclusions deducible therefrom, many of the same school of philosophy differed with each other, remained dissatisfied, and raised very serious objections both to the value of the experiments themselves, and to the supposed proof which they furnished of the Earth’s rotation. One writer in the Times newspaper of the period, who signs himself “B. A. C.,” says, “I have read the accounts of the Parisian experiment as they have appeared in many of our papers, and must confess that I still remain unconvinced of the reality of the phenomenon. It appears to me that, except at the pole where the point of suspension is immovable, no result can be obtained. In other cases the shifting of the direction of passage through the lowest point that takes place during an excursion of the pendulum, from that point in one direction and its return to it again, will be exactly compensated by the corresponding shifting in the contrary direction during the pendulum’s excursion on the opposite side. Take a particular case. Suppose the pendulum in any latitude to be set oscillating in the meridian plane, and to be started from the vertical towards the south. It is obvious that the wire by which it is suspended does not continue to describe a plane, but a species of conoidal surface; that when the pendulum has reached its extreme point its direction is to the south-west, and that as the tangent plane to the described surface through the point of suspension necessarily contains the normal to the Earth at the same point, the pendulum on its return passes through the same point in the direction north-east. Now, starting again from this point, we have exactly the circumstances of the last case, the primary plane being shifted slightly out of the meridian; when, therefore, the pendulum has reached its extreme point of excursion the direction of the wire is to the west of this plane, and when it returns to the vertical the direction of passage through the lowest point is as much to the west of this plane as it was in the former case to the west of the meridian plane; but since it is now moving from north to south instead of from south to north, as in the former case, its former deviation receives complete compensation, and the primary plane returns again to the meridian, when the whole process recurs.”

In the Liverpool Mercury of May 23, 1851, the following letter appeared:—“The supposed manifestation of the Rotation of the Earth.—The French, English, and European continental journals have given publicity to an experiment made in Paris with a pendulum; which experiment is said to have had the same results when made elsewhere. To the facts set forth no contradiction has been given, and it is therefore to be hoped that they are true. The correctness of the inferences drawn from the facts is another matter. The first position of these theorists is, that in a complete vacuum beyond the sphere of the Earth’s atmosphere, a pendulum will continue to oscillate in one and the same original plane. On that supposition their whole theory is founded. In making this supposition the fact is overlooked that there is no vibratory motion unless through atmospheric resistance, or by force opposing impulse. Perpetual progress in rectilinear motion may be imagined, as in the corpuscular theory of light; circular motion may also be found in the planetary systems; and parabolic and hyperbolic motions in those of comets; but vibration is artificial and of limited duration. No body in nature returns the same road it went, unless artificially constrained to do so. The supposition of a permanent vibratory motion such as is presumed in the theory advanced, is unfounded in fact, and absurd in idea; and the whole affair of this proclaimed discovery falls to the ground. It is what the French call a ‘mystification’—anglice a ‘humbug.’ Liverpool, 22nd May, 1851.” “T.”

Another writer declared that he and others had made many experiments and had discovered that the plane of vibration had nothing whatever to do with the meridian longitude nor with the Earth’s motion, but followed the plane of the magnetic meridian.

“A scientific gentleman in Dundee recently tried the pendulum experiment, and he says—‘that the pendulum is capable of showing the Earth’s motion I regard as a gross delusion; but that it tends to the magnetic meridian I have found to be a fact.’”[38]

[38] Liverpool Journal, May 17, 1851.

In many cases the experiments have not shown a change at all in the plane of oscillation of the pendulum; in others the alteration in the plane of vibration has been in the wrong direction; and very often the rate of variation has been altogether different to that which theory indicated. The following is a case in illustration:—“On Wednesday evening the Rev. H. H. Jones, F.R.A.S., exhibited the apparatus of Foucault to illustrate the diurnal rotation of the Earth, in the Library Hall of the Manchester Athenæum. The preparations were simple. A circle of chalk was drawn in the centre of the floor, immediately under the arched skylight. The circle was exactly 360 inches in its circumference, every inch being intended to represent one degree. According to a calculation Mr. Jones had made, and which he produced at the Philosophical Society six weeks ago, the plane of oscillation of the pendulum would, at Manchester, diverge about one degree in five minutes, or perhaps a very little less. He therefore drew this circle exactly 360 inches round, and marked the inches on its circumference. The pendulum was hung from the skylight immediately over the centre of the circle, the point of suspension being 25 feet high. At that length of wire, it should require 2¹⁄₂ seconds to make each oscillation across the circle. The brazen ball, which at the end of a fine wire constituted the pendulum, was furnished with a point, to enable the spectator to observe the more easily its course. A long line was drawn through the diameter of the circle, due north and south, and the pendulum started so as to swing exactly along this line; to the westward of which, at intervals of three inches at the circumference, two other lines were drawn, passing through the centre. According to the theory, the pendulum should diverge from its original line towards the west, at the rate of one inch or degree in five minutes. This, however, Mr. Jones explained, was a perfection of accuracy only attainable in a vacuum, and rarely could be approached where the pendulum had to pass through an atmosphere subject to disturbances; besides, it was difficult to avoid giving it some slight lateral bias at starting. In order to obviate this as much as possible, the steel wire was as fine as would bear the weight, ¹⁄₃₀th of an inch thick; and the point of suspension was adjusted with delicate nicety. An iron bolt was screwed into the frame-work of the skylight; into it a brass nut was inserted—the wire passed through the nut (the hollow sides of which were bell-shaped, in order to give it fair play), and at the top the wire ended in a globular piece, there being also a fine screw to keep it from slipping. * * * The pendulum was gently drawn up to one side, at the southern end of the diametrical line, and attached by a thread to something near. When it hung quite still the thread was burnt asunder, and the pendulum began to oscillate to and fro across the circle. * * * Before it had been going on quite seven minutes, it had reached nearly the third degree towards the west, whereas it ought to have occupied a quarter of an hour in getting thus far from its starting line, even making no allowance for the resistance of the atmosphere.”[39]

[39] “Manchester Examiner” (Supplement), May 24, 1851.

Besides the irregularities so often observed in the time and direction of the pendulum vibrations, and which are quite sufficient to render them worthless as evidence of the Earth’s motion, the use which the Newtonian astronomers made of the general fact that the plane of oscillation is variable, was most unfair and illogical. It was proclaimed to the world as a visible proof of the Earth’s diurnal motion; but the motion was assumed to exist, and then employed to explain the cause of the fact which was first called a proof of the thing assumed! A greater violation of the laws of investigation was never perpetrated! The whole subject as developed and applied by the theoretical philosophers is to the fullest degree unreasonable and absurd—not a “jot or tittle” better than the reasoning contained in the following letter:—“Sir,—Allow me to call your serious and polite attention to the extraordinary phenomenon, demonstrating the rotation of the Earth, which I at this present moment experience, and you yourself or anybody else, I have not the slightest doubt, would be satisfied of, under similar circumstances. Some sceptical and obstinate individuals may doubt that the Earth’s motion is visible, but I say from personal observation its a positive fact. I don’t care about latitude or longitude, or a vibratory pendulum revolving round the sine of a tangent on a spherical surface, nor axes, nor apsides, nor anything of the sort. That is all rubbish. All I know is, I see the ceiling of this coffee-room going round. I perceive this distinctly with the naked eye—only my sight has been sharpened by a slight stimulant. I write after my sixth go of brandy-and-water, whereof witness my hand,”—“Swiggins”—Goose and Gridiron, May 5, 1851.—“P.S. Why do two waiters come when I only call one?”[40]

[40] “Punch,” May 10, 1851.

The whole matter as handled by the astronomical theorists is fully deserving of the ridicule implied in the above quotation from Punch; but because great ingenuity has been shewn, and much thought and devotion manifested in connection with it, and the general public thereby greatly deceived, it is necessary that the subject should be fairly and seriously examined. What are the facts?

First.—When a pendulum, constructed according to the plan of M. Foucault, is allowed to vibrate, its plane of vibration is often variable—not always. The variation when it does occur, is not uniform—is not always the same in the same place; nor always the same either in its rate or velocity, or in its direction. It cannot therefore be taken as evidence; for that which is inconstant cannot be used in favour of or against any given proposition. It therefore is not evidence and proves nothing!

Secondly.—If the plane of vibration is observed to change, where is the connection between such change and the supposed motion of the Earth? What principle of reasoning guides the experimenter to the conclusion that it is the Earth which moves underneath the pendulum, and not the pendulum which moves over the Earth? What logical right or necessity forces one conclusion in preference to the other?

Thirdly.—Why was not the peculiar arrangement of the point of suspension of the pendulum specially considered, in regard to its possible influence upon the plane of oscillation? Was it not known, or was it overlooked, or was it, in the climax of theoretical revelry, ignored that a “ball-and-socket” joint is one which facilitates circular motion more readily than any other? and that a pendulum so suspended (as was M. Foucault’s), could not, after passing over one arc of vibration, return through the same arc without there being many chances to one that its globular point of suspension would slightly turn or twist in its bed, and therefore give to the return or backward oscillation a slight change of direction? Let the immediate cause of the pendulum’s liability to change its plane of vibration be traced; and it will be found not to have the slightest connection with the motion or non-motion of the surface over which it vibrates.

At a recent meeting of the French Academy of sciences, “M. Dehaut sent in a note, stating that M. Foucault (whose experiments on the pendulum effected a few years ago at the Pantheon, are of European notoriety) is not the first discoverer of the fact that the plane of oscillation of the free pendulum is invariable; but that the honour of the discovery is due to Poinsinet de Sivry, who, in 1782, stated, in a note to his translation of ‘Pliny,’ that a mariner’s compass might be constructed without a magnet, by making a pendulum and setting it in motion in a given direction; because, provided the motion were continually kept up, the pendulum would continue to oscillate in the same direction, no matter by how many points, or how often the ship might happen to change her course.”

SECTION 13.
PERSPECTIVE ON THE SEA.

It has been shown (at [pages 25] to [34]) that the law of perspective, as commonly taught in our Schools of Art, is fallacious and contrary to everything seen in nature. If an object be held up in the air, and gradually carried away from an observer who maintains his position, it is true that all its parts will converge to one and the same point; but if the same object be placed upon the ground and similarly moved away from a fixed observer, the same predicate is false. In the first case the centre of the object is the datum to which every point of the exterior converges; but in the second case the ground becomes the datum, in and towards which every part of the object converges in succession, beginning with the lowest, or that nearest to it.

Instances:—A man with light trousers and black boots walking along a level path, will appear at a certain distance as though the boots had been removed, and the trousers brought in contact with the ground.

A young girl, with short garments terminating ten or twelve inches above the feet, will, in walking forward, appear to sink towards the Earth, the space between which and the bottom of the clothes will appear to gradually diminish, and in the distance of half-a-mile the limbs, which were first seen for ten or twelve inches, will be invisible—the bottom of the garment will seem to touch the ground.

A small dog running along will appear to gradually shorten by the legs, which, in less than half a mile, will be invisible, and the body appear to glide upon the earth.

Horses and cattle moving away from a given point will seem to have lost their hoofs, and to be walking upon the outer bones of the limbs.

Carriages similarly receding will seem to lose that portion of the rim of the wheels which touches the Earth; the axles will seem to get lower; and at the distance of a few miles, the body will appear to drag along in contact with the ground. This is very remarkable in the case of a railway carriage when moving away upon a straight and level portion of line several miles in length. These instances, which are but a few of what might be quoted, will be sufficient to prove, beyond the power of doubt or the necessity for controversy, that upon a plane or horizontal surface, the lowest part of bodies receding from a given point of observation will disappear before the higher. This is precisely what is observed in the case of a ship at sea, when outward bound—the lowest part—the hull, disappearing before the higher parts—the sails and mast head. Abstractedly, when the lowest part of a receding object thus disappears by entering the “vanishing point,” it could be seen again to any and every extent by a telescope, if the power were sufficient to magnify at the distance observed. This is to a great extent practicable upon smooth horizontal surfaces, as upon frozen lakes or canals; and upon long straight lines of railway. But the power of restoring such objects is greatly modified and diminished where the surface is undulating or otherwise moveable, as in large and level meadows, and pasture lands generally; in the vast prairies and grassy plains of America; and especially so upon the ocean, where the surface is always more or less in an undulating condition. In Holland and other level countries, persons have been seen in winter, skating upon the ice, at distances varying from ten to twenty miles. On some of the straight and “level” lines of railway which cross the prairies of America, the trains have been observed for more than twenty miles; but upon the sea the conditions are altered, and the hull of a receding vessel can only be seen for a few miles, and this will depend very greatly—the altitude of the observer being the same, upon the state of the water. When the surface is calm, the hull may be seen much farther than when it is rough and stormy; but under ordinary circumstances, when to the naked eye the hull has just become invisible, or is doubtfully visible, it may be seen again distinctly by the aid of a powerful telescope. Although abstractedly or mathematically there should be no limit to this power of restoring by a telescope a lost object upon a smooth horizontal surface, upon the sea this limit is soon observed; the water being variable in its degree of agitation, the limit of sight over its surface is equally variable, as shown by the following experiments:—In May, 1864, on several occasions when the water was unusually calm, from the landing stairs of the Victoria pier at Portsmouth, and from an elevation of 2 ft. 8 in. above the water, the greater part of the hull of the Nab Light-ship was, through a good telescope, distinctly visible; but on other experiments being made, when the water was less calm, no portion of it could be seen from the same elevation, notwithstanding that the most powerful telescopes were employed. At other times half the hull, and sometimes only the upper part of the bulwarks, were visible. If the hull had been invisible from the rotundity of the Earth, the following calculation will show that it should at all times have been 24 feet below the horizon:—The distance of the light-ship from the pier is 8 statute miles. The elevation of the observer being 32 inches above the water, would require 2 miles to be deducted as the distance of the supposed convex horizon; for the square of 2 multiplied by 8 inches (the fall in the first mile of the Earth’s curvation) equals 32 inches. This deducted from the 8 miles, will leave 6 miles as the distance from the horizon to the light ship. Hence 6² × 8 in. = 288 inches, or 24 feet. The top of the bulwarks, it was said, rose about 10 ft. above the water line; hence, deducting 10 from 24 feet, under all circumstances, even had the water been perfectly smooth and stationary, the top of the hull should have been 14 feet below the summit of the arc of water, or beneath the line of sight! This one fact is entirely fatal to the doctrine of the Earth’s rotundity. But such facts have been observed in various other places—the north-west light-ship in Liverpool Bay, and the light vessels of many other channels near the southern, eastern, and western shores of Great Britain. From the beach of Southsea Common, near Portsmouth, the observer lying down near the water, above the surface of which the eye was 2¹⁄₂ feet, and with a telescope looking across Spithead to the quarantine ship lying in the “Roads,” between Ryde and Cowes, in the Isle of Wight, a distance of 7 miles, the copper sheathing of that vessel was distinctly seen, the depth of which was about 2 feet. Making the usual calculation in accordance with the doctrine of the Earth’s convexity, it will be seen that an arc of water ought to have existed between the two points, the summit of which arc should have been 16 feet above the copper sheathing of the vessel!

From an elevation of 2¹⁄₂ feet above the water opposite the Royal Yacht Club House, in West Cowes, Isle of Wight, the pile work and promenade of the pier at Stake’s Bay, near Gosport, and nearly opposite Osborne House, were easily distinguished through various telescopes: the distance is 7 miles, the altitude of the promenade 10 feet, and the usual calculation will show that this pier ought to have been many feet below the horizon!

It is a well-known fact that the light of the Eddystone lighthouse is often plainly visible from the beach in Plymouth Sound; and sometimes, when the sea is very calm, persons can see it distinctly when sitting in ordinary rowing boats in that part of the Sound which will allow the line of sight to pass between Drake’s Island and the western end of the Breakwater. The distance is 14 statute miles. In a list of lighthouses in a work called “The Lighthouses of the World,” by A. G. Findlay, F.R.G.S., published in 1862, by Richard H. Lawrie, 53, Fleet Street, London, it is said, at page 28:—“In the Tables the height of the flame above the highest tide high water level is given, so that it is the minimum range of the light; to this elevation 10 feet is added for the height of the deck of the ship above the sea. Besides the increased distance to which low water will cause the light to be seen, the effect of refraction will also sometimes increase their range.” In the “Tables” above referred to, at page 36 the Eddystone light is said to be visible 13 miles. But these 13 miles are nautical measure; and as 3 nautical miles equal 3¹⁄₂ statute miles, the distance at which the Eddystone light is visible is over 15 statute miles. Notwithstanding that the Eddystone light is actually visible at a distance of 15 statute miles, and admitted to be so both by the Admiralty authorities and by calculation according to the doctrine of rotundity, very often at the same distance, the lantern is not visible at an elevation of 4 feet from the water; showing that the law of perspective, previously referred to, is greatly influenced by the state of the surface of the water over which the line of sight is directed. A remarkable illustration of this influence is given in the Western Daily Mercury, published in Plymouth, of October 25, 1864. Several discussions had previously taken place at the Plymouth Athenæum and the Devonport Mechanics’ Institute, on the true figure of the Earth; subsequent to which a committee was formed for the purpose of making experiments bearing on the question at issue. The names of the gentlemen as given in the above-named journal were “Parallax” (the author of this work), “Theta” (Mr. Henry, a teacher in Her Majesty’s Dock-yard, Devonport), and Messrs. Osborne, Richards, Rickard, Mogg, Evers, and Pearce, all of Plymouth. From the report published as above stated, the following quotation is made:—Observation 6th: “On the beach, at 5 feet from the water level, the Eddystone was entirely out of sight.”

The matter may be summarized as follows:—At any time when the sea is calm and the weather clear, the Light of the Eddystone, which is 89 feet above the foundation on the rock, may be distinctly seen from an elevation of 5 feet above the water level; according to the Admiralty directions, it “may be seen 13 nautical (or 15 statute) miles,”[41] or one mile still farther away than the position of the observers on the above-named occasion; and yet on that occasion, and at a distance of only 14 statute miles, notwithstanding that it was a very fine autumn day, and a clear back ground existed, not only was the lantern, which is 89 feet high, not visible, but the top of the vane, which is 100 feet above the foundation was, as stated in the report, “entirely out of sight.”

[41] “Lighthouses of the World,” p. 36.

FIG. 32.

That vessels and lighthouses are sometimes more distinctly seen than at others; and that the lower parts of such objects are sooner lost sight of when the sea is rough than when it is calm, are items in the experience of seafaring people as common as their knowledge of the changes in the weather; and prominence is only given here to the above case because it was verified by persons of different opinions upon the subject of the Earth’s form, and in the presence of several hundreds of the most learned and respectable inhabitants of Plymouth and the neighbourhood. The conclusion which such observations necessitate and force upon us is, that the law of perspective which is everywhere visible on land, is modified when observed in connection with objects upon or near the sea. But how modified? If the water of the ocean were frozen and at perfect rest, any object upon its surface would be seen as far as telescopic or magnifying power could be brought to bear upon it. But because this is not the case—because the water is always more or less in motion, not only of progression but of fluctuation, the swells and waves, into which the surface is broken operate to prevent the line of sight from passing parallel to the horizontal surface of the water. It has been shown at pages 16 to 20, and also at 25 to 33, that the surface of the Earth and Sea appears to rise up to the level, or altitude of the eye; and that at a certain distance the line of sight and the surface which is parallel to it appear to converge to a “vanishing point;” which point is “the horizon.” If this horizon, or vanishing point, were formed by the apparent junction of two perfectly stationary parallel lines, it could be penetrated by a telescope of sufficient power to magnify at the distance; but because upon the sea the surface of the water is not stationary, the line of sight at the vanishing point becomes angular instead of parallel, and telescopic power is of little avail in restoring objects beyond this point. The following diagram will render this clear:—The horizontal line C D E and the line of sight A B are parallel to each other, and appear to meet at the vanishing point B. But at and about this point the line A B is intercepted by the undulating, or fluctuating surface of the water; the degree of which is variable, being sometimes very great and at others inconsiderable, and having to pass over the crest of the waves, as at H, is obliged to become A H, instead of A B, and will therefore fall upon a ship, lighthouse, or other object at the point S, or higher or lower as such objects are more or less beyond the point H.

It is worthy of note that the waves at the point H, whatever their real magnitude may be, are magnified and rendered more obstructive by the very instrument—the telescope—which is employed to make the objects beyond more plainly visible: and thus the phenomenon is often very strikingly observed—that while a powerful telescope will render the sails and rigging of a ship when beyond the point H, or the optical horizon, so distinct that the very ropes are easily distinguished, not the slightest portion of the hull can be seen. The “crested waters” form a barrier to the horizontal line-of-sight, as substantial as would the summit of an intervening rock or island.

In the report which appeared in the Western Daily Mercury, of Oct. 25, 1864, the following observations were also recorded:—“On the sea-front of the Camera house, and at an elevation of 110 feet from the mean level of the sea, a plane mirror was fixed, by the aid of a plumb-line, in a true vertical position. In this mirror the distant horizon was distinctly visible on a level with the eye of the observer. This was the simple fact, as observed by the several members of the committee which had been appointed. But some of the observers remarked that the line of the horizon in the mirror rose and fell with the eye, as also did every thing else which was reflected, and that this ought to be recorded as an addendum—granted. The surface of the sea appeared to regularly ascend from the base of the Hoe to the distant horizon. The horizon from the extreme east to the west, as far as the eye could see, was parallel to a horizontal line.”

The following version was recorded in the same journal, of the same date, and was furnished by one of the committee who had manifested a very marked aversion to the doctrine that the surface of all water is horizontal:—“A vertical looking-glass was suspended from the Camera and the horizon seen in it, as well as various other objects reflected, rising and falling with the eye. The water was seen in the glass to ascend from the base of the Hoe to the horizon. The horizon appeared parallel to a horizontal line.”

It will be observed that the two reports are substantially the same, and very strongly corroborate the remarks made at [pages 15], [16], and [17] of this work. Indeed no other report could have been given without the author’s becoming subject to the charge of glaring, obstinate, and wilful misrepresentation. What then has again been demonstrated? That the surface of all water is horizontal, and that, therefore, the Earth cannot possibly be anything other than a Plane. All appearances to the contrary have been shown to be purely optical and adventitious.

FIG. 33.

FIG. 34.

Another proof that the surface of all water is horizontal and that therefore the Earth cannot be a globe is furnished by the following experiment, which was made in May, 1864, on the new pier at Southsea, near Portsmouth:—A telescope was fixed upon a stand and directed across the water at Spithead to the pier head at Ryde, in the Isle of Wight, as shown in the subjoined diagram. The line of sight crossed a certain part of the funnel of one of the regular steamers trading between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight; and it was observed to cut or fall upon the same part during the whole of the passage to Ryde Pier, thus proving that the water between the two piers is horizontal, because it was parallel to the line of sight from the telescope fixed at Southsea. If the Earth were a globe the channel between Ryde and Southsea would be an arc of a circle, and as the distance across is 4¹⁄₂ statute miles the centre of the arc would be 40 inches higher than the two sides; and the steamer would have ascended an inclined plane for 2¹⁄₄ miles, or to the centre of the channel, and afterwards descended for the same distance towards Ryde. This ascent and descent would have been marked by the line of sight falling 40 inches nearer to the deck of the steamer when on the centre of the arc of water, as represented in the following diagram; but as the line of sight did not cut the steamer lower down when in the centre of the channel, and no such ascent and descent was observed, it follows necessarily that the surface of the water between Southsea and the Isle of Wight is not convex, and therefore the Earth as a whole is not a globe. The evidence against the doctrine of the Earth’s rotundity is so clear and perfect, and so completely fulfils the conditions required in special and independent investigations, that it is impossible for any person who can put aside the bias of previous education to avoid the opposite conclusion that the Earth is a plane. This conclusion is greatly confirmed by the experience of mariners in regard to certain lighthouses. Where the light is fixed and very brilliant it can be seen at a distance, which the present doctrine of the Earth’s rotundity would render altogether impossible. For instance, at page 35 of “Lighthouses of the World,” the Ryde Pier Light, erected in 1852, is described as a bright fixed light, 21 feet above high water, and visible from an altitude of 10 feet at the distance of 12 nautical or 14 statute miles. The altitude of 10 feet would place the horizon at the distance of 4 statute miles from the observer. The square of the remaining 10 statute miles multiplied by 8 inches will give a fall or curvature downwards from the horizon of 66 feet. Deduct from this 21 feet, the altitude of the light, and we have 45 feet as the amount which the light ought to be below the horizon!

By the same authority, at page 39, the Bidston Hill Lighthouse, near Liverpool, is 228 feet above high water, one bright fixed light, visible 23 nautical or very nearly 27 statute miles. Deducting 4 miles for the height of the observer, squaring the remaining 23 miles and multiplying that product by 8 inches we have a downward curvature of 352 feet; from this deduct the altitude of the light, 228 feet, and there remains 124 feet as the distance which the light should be below the horizon!

Again, at page 40:—“The lower light on the ‘Calf of Man’ is 282 feet above high water, and is visible 23 nautical miles.” The usual calculation will show that it ought to be 70 feet below the horizon!

At page 41 the Cromer light is described as having an altitude of 274 feet above high water, and is visible 23 nautical miles, whereas it ought to be at that distance 78 feet below the horizon!

At page 9 it is said:—“The coal fire (which was once used) on the Spurn Point Lighthouse, at the mouth of the Humber, which was constructed on a good principle for burning, has been seen 30 miles off.” If the miles here given are nautical measure they would be equal to 35 statute miles. Deducting 4 miles as the usual amount for the distance of the horizon, there will remain 31 miles, which squared and multiplied by 8 inches will give 640 feet as the declination of the water from the horizon to the base of the Lighthouse, the altitude of which is given at page 42 as 93 feet above high water. This amount deducted from the above 640 feet will leave 547 feet as the distance which the Spurn Light ought to have been below the horizon!

The two High Whitby Lights are 240 feet above high water (see page 42), and are visible 23 nautical miles at sea. The proper calculation will be 102 feet below the horizon!

At page 43, it is said that the Lower Farne Island Light is visible for 12 nautical or 14 statute miles, and the height above high water is 45 feet. The usual calculation will show that this light ought to be 67 feet below the horizon!

The Hekkengen Light, on the west coast of Norway (see page 54), is 66 feet above high water, and visible 16 statute miles. It ought to be sunk beneath the horizon 30 feet!

The Trondhjem Light (see p. 55), on the Ringholm Rock, west coast of Norway, is 51 feet high, and is visible 16 statute miles; but ought to be 45 feet below the horizon!

The Rondö Light, also on the west coast of Norway (see p. 55), is 161 feet high, and is visible for 25 statute miles; the proper calculation will prove that it ought to be above 130 feet below the horizon!

The Egerö Light, on west point of Island, south coast of Norway (see p. 56), and which is fitted up with the first order of the dioptric lights, is visible for 28 statute miles, and the altitude above high water is 154 feet; making the usual calculation we find this light ought to be depressed, or sunk, below the horizon 230 feet!

The Dunkerque Light, on the north coast of France (see p. 71), is 194 feet high, and visible 28 statute miles. The ordinary calculation will show that it ought to be 190 feet below the horizon!

The Goulfar Bay Light, on the west coast of France, is said at page 77, to be visible 31 statute miles, and to have an altitude at high water of 276 feet, at the distance given it ought to be 210 feet below the horizon!

At page 78, the Cordonan Light, on the River Gironde, west coast of France, is given as being visible 31 statute miles, and its altitude 207 feet, which would give its depression below the horizon as nearly 280 feet!

The Light at Madras (p. 104), on the Esplanade, is 132 feet high, and visible 28 statute miles, whereas at that distance it ought to be beneath the horizon above 250 feet!

The Port Nicholson Light, in New Zealand, erected in 1859 (p. 110), is visible 35 statute miles, the altitude is 420 feet above high water, and ought, if the water is convex, to be 220 feet below the horizon!

The Light on Cape Bonavista, Newfoundland, is 150 feet above high water, and is visible 35 statute miles (p. 111), this will give on calculation for the Earth’s rotundity, 491 feet that the Light should be below the horizon!

Many other cases could be given from the same work, shewing that the practical observations of mariners, engineers, and surveyors, entirely ignore the doctrine that the Earth is a globe. The following cases taken from miscellaneous sources will be interesting as bearing upon and leading to the same conclusion. In the Illustrated London News of Oct. 20, 1849, an engraving is given of a new Lighthouse erected on the Irish coast, The accompanying descriptive matter contains the following sentence:—“Ballycotton Island rises 170 feet above the level of the sea; the height of the Lighthouse is 60 feet including the Lantern; giving the light an elevation of 230 feet, which is visible upwards of 35 miles to sea.” If the 35 miles are nautical measure the distance in statute measure would be over 40 miles; and allowing the usual distance for the horizon, there would be 36 miles from thence to the Lighthouse. The square of 36 multiplied by 8 inches amounts to 864 feet; deduct the total altitude of the Lantern, 230 feet, and the remainder, 634 feet, is the distance which the Light of Ballycotton ought to be below the horizon!

In the Times newspaper of Monday, Oct. 16, 1854, in an account of her Majesty’s visit to Great Grimsby from Hull, the following paragraph occurs:—“Their attention was first naturally directed to a gigantic tower which rises from the centre pier to the height of 300 feet, and can be seen 60 miles out at sea.” The 60 miles if nautical, and this is always understood when referring to distances at sea, would make 70 statute miles, to which the fall of 8 inches belongs, and as all observations at sea are considered to be made at an elevation of 10 feet above the water, for which four miles must be deducted from the whole distance, 66 statute miles will remain, the square of which multiplied by 8 inches, gives a declination towards the tower of 2,904 feet; deducting from this the altitude of the tower, 300 feet, we obtain the startling conclusion that the tower should be at the distance at which it is visible, (60 nautical miles,) more than 2,600 feet below the horizon!

The only modification which can be made or allowed in the preceding calculations is that for refraction, which is considered by surveyors generally to amount to about ¹⁄₁₂th of the altitude of the object observed. If we make this allowance it will reduce the various quotients by ¹⁄₁₂th, which is so little that the whole will be substantially the same. Take the last quotation as an instance—2,600 feet divided by 12 gives 206, which deducted from 2,600 leaves 2,384 as the corrected amount for refraction.

SECTION 14.
GENERAL SUMMARY—APPLICATION—CUI BONO?

In the preceding sections it has been shown that the Copernican, or Newtonian theory of Astronomy is “an absurd composition of truth and error;” and, as admitted by its founder, “not necessarily true or even probable,” and that instead of its being a general conclusion derived from known and admitted facts, it is a heterogeneous compound of assumed premises, isolated truths, and variable appearances in nature. Its advocates are challenged to show a single instance wherein a phenomenon is explained, a calculation made, or a conclusion advanced without the aid of an avowed or implied assumption! The very construction of a theory at all, and especially such as the Copernican, is a complete violation of that natural and legitimate mode of investigation to which the term zetetic has been applied. The doctrine of the universality of gravitation is an assumption, made only in accordance with that “pride and ambition which has led philosophers to think it beneath them to offer anything less to the world than a complete and finished system of nature.” It was said, in effect, by Newton, and has ever since been insisted upon by his disciples—“Allow us, without proof, the existence of two universal forces—centrifugal and centripetal, or attraction and repulsion, and we will construct a system which shall explain all the leading mysteries of nature. An apple falling from a tree, or a stone rolling downwards, and a pail of water tied to a string set in rapid motion were assumed to be types of the relations existing among all the bodies in the universe. The moon was assumed to have a tendency to fall towards the Earth, and the Earth and Moon together towards the Sun. The same relation was assumed to exist between all the smaller and larger luminaries in the firmament; and it soon became necessary to extend this assumption to infinity. The universe was parcelled out into systems—co-existent and illimitable. Suns, Planets, Satellites, and Comets were assumed to exist, infinite in number and boundless in extent; and to enable the theorists to explain the alternating and constantly recurring phenomena which were everywhere observable, these numberless and for-ever-extending objects were assumed to be spheres. The Earth we inhabit was called a planet; and because it was thought to be reasonable that the luminous objects in the firmament which were called planets were spherical and had motion, so it was only reasonable to suppose that as the Earth was a planet it must also be spherical and have motion—ergo, the Earth is a globe, and moves upon axes and in an orbit round the Sun! And as the Earth is a globe, and is inhabited, so again it is only reasonable to conclude that the planets are worlds like the Earth, and are inhabited by sentient beings! What reasoning! Assumption upon assumption, and the conclusion derived therefrom called a thing proved, to be employed as a truth to substantiate the first assumption! Such a “juggle and jumble” of fancies and falsehoods, extended and intensified as it is in theoretical astronomy, is calculated to make the unprejudiced inquirer revolt in horror from the terrible conjuration which has been practised upon him; to sternly resolve to resist its further progress; to endeavour to overthrow the entire edifice, and to bury in its ruins the false honours which have been associated with its fabricators, and which still attach to its devotees. For the learning, the patience, the perseverance, and devotion for which they have ever been examples, honour and applause need not be withheld; but their false reasoning, the advantages they have taken of the general ignorance of mankind in respect to astronomical subjects, and the unfounded theories they have advanced and defended, cannot but be regretted, and ought to be resisted. It has become a duty, paramount and imperative, to meet them in open, avowed, and unyielding rebellion; to declare that their unopposed reign of error and confusion is over; and that henceforth, like a falling dynasty, they must shrink and disappear, leaving the throne and the kingdom to those awakening intellects whose numbers are constantly increasing, and whose march is rapid and irresistible. The soldiers of truth and reason have drawn the sword, and ere another generation has been educated, will have forced the usurper to abdicate. The axe is lifted—it is falling, and in a very few years will have “cut the cumberer down.”

The Earth a Globe, and it is necessarily demanded that it has a diurnal and an annual and various other motions; for a globular world without motion would be useless—day and night, winter and summer, the half year’s light and darkness at the “North Pole,” and other phenomena could not be explained by the supposition of rotundity without the assumption also of rapid and constant motion. Hence it is assumed that the Earth and Moon, and all the Planets and their Satellites move in relation to each other, and that the whole move together in different planes round the Sun. The Sun and its “system” of revolving bodies are now assumed to have a general and all-inclusive motion, in common with an endless series of other Suns and systems, around some other and “central Sun” which has been assumed to be the true axis and centre of the Universe! These assumed general motions with the particular and peculiar motions which are assigned to the various bodies in detail, together constitute a system so confused and complicated that it is almost impossible and always difficult of comprehension by the most active and devoted minds. The most simple and direct experiments, however, may be shown to prove that the Earth has no progressive motion whatever; and here again the advocates of this interminable and entangling arrangement are challenged to produce a single instance of so called proofs of these motions which does not involve an assumption—often a glaring falsehood—but always a point which is not, or cannot be demonstrated.

The magnitudes, distances, velocities, and periodic times which these assumed motions eliminate, are all glaringly fictitious, because they are only such as a false theory creates a necessity for. It is geometrically demonstrable that all the visible luminaries in the firmament are within a distance of a few thousand miles, not more than the space which stretches between the North Pole and the Cape of Good Hope; and the principle of measurement—that of plane triangulation—which demonstrates this important fact, is one which no mathematician, demanding to be considered a master in the science, dare for a moment deny. All these luminaries then, and the Sun itself, being so near to us, cannot be other than very small as compared with the Earth we inhabit. They are all in motion over the Earth, which is alone immoveable, and therefore they cannot be anything more than secondary and subservient structures, ministering to this fixed material world, and to its inhabitants. This is a plain, simple, and in every respect demonstrable philosophy, agreeing with the evidence of our senses, borne out by every fairly instituted experiment, and never requiring a violation of those principles of investigation which the human mind has ever recognized, and depended upon in its every day life. The modern, or Newtonian Astronomy, has none of these characteristics. The whole system taken together constitutes a most monstrous absurdity. It is false in its foundation; irregular, unfair, and illogical in its details; and in its conclusions inconsistent and contradictory. Worse than all, it is a prolific source of irreligion and of atheism, of which its advocates are, practically, supporters! By defending a system which is directly opposite to that which is taught in connection with all religions, they lead the more critical and daring intellects to reject the scriptures altogether, to ignore the worship, and doubt and deny the existence of a Supreme Ruler of the world. Many of the primest minds are thus irreparably injured, robbed of those present pleasures, and that cheering hope of the future which the earnest christian devotee holds as of far greater value than all earthly wealth and grandeur; or than the mastery of all the philosophical complications which the human mind ever invented.

The doctrine of the Earth’s rotundity and motion is now shown to be unconditionally false; and therefore the scriptures which assert the contrary, are, in their philosophical teachings at least, literally true. In practical science therefore, atheism and denial of scriptural authority have no foundation. If human theories are cast aside, and the facts of nature, and legitimate reasoning alone depended upon, it will be seen that religion and true philosophy are not antagonistic, and that the hopes which both encourage may be fully relied upon. To the religious mind this matter is most important, it is indeed no less than a sacred question, for it renders complete the evidence that the Jewish and Christian scriptures are true, and must have been communicated to mankind by an anterior and supernal Being. For if after so many ages of mental struggling, of speculation and trial, and change and counterchange, we have at length discovered that all astronomical theories are false, that the Earth is a plane, and motionless, and that the various luminaries above it are lights only and not worlds; and that these very doctrines have been taught and recorded in a work which has been handed down to us from the earliest times; from a time, in fact, when mankind could not have had sufficient experience to enable them to criticise and doubt, much less to invent, it follows that whoever dictated and caused such doctrines to be recorded and preserved to all future generations, must have been superhuman, omniscient, and, to the Earth and its inhabitants pre-existent.

To the dogged Atheist, whose “mind is made up” not to enter into any further investigation, and not to admit of possible error in his past conclusions, this question is of no more account than it is to an Ox. He who cares not to re-examine from time to time his state of mind, and the result of his accumulated experience is in no single respect better than the lowest animal in creation. He may see nothing higher, more noble, more intelligent or beautiful than himself; and in this his pride, conceit, and vanity find an incarnation. To such a creature there is no God, for he is himself an equal with the highest being he has ever recognised! Such Atheism exists to an alarming extent among the philosophers of Europe and America; and it has been mainly fostered by the astronomical and geological theories of the day. Besides which, in consequence of the differences between the language of Scripture and the teachings of modern Astronomy, there is to be found in the very hearts of Christian and Jewish congregations a sort of “smouldering scepticism;” kind of faint suspicion which causes great numbers to manifest a cold and visible indifference to religious requirements. It is this which has led thousands to desert the cause of earnest, active Christianity, and which has forced the majority of those who still remain in the ranks of religion to declare “that the Scriptures were not intended to teach correctly other than moral and religious doctrines; that the references so often made to the physical world, and to natural phenomena generally, are given in language to suit the prevailing notions and the ignorance of the people.” A Christian philosopher who wrote almost a century ago in reference to remarks similar to the above, says, “Why should we suspect that Moses, Joshua, David, Solomon, and the later prophets and inspired writers have counterfeited their sentiments concerning the order of the universe, from pure complaisance, or being in any way obliged to dissemble with a view to gratify the prepossessions of the populace? These eminent men being kings, lawgivers, and generals themselves, or always privileged with access to the courts of sovereign princes, besides the reverence and awful dignity which the power of divination and working of miracles procured to them, had great worldly and spiritual authority.... They had often in charge to command, suspend, revert, and otherwise interfere with the course and laws of nature, and were never daunted to speak out the truth before the most mighty potentates on earth, much less would they be overawed by the vox populi.” To say that the Scriptures were not intended to teach science truthfully, is in substance to declare that God himself has stated, and commissioned His prophets to teach things which are utterly false! Those Newtonian philosophers who still hold that the sacred volume is the Word of God, are thus placed in a fearful dilemma. How can the two systems, so directly opposite in character, be reconciled? Oil and water alone will not combine—mix them by violence as we may, they will again separate when allowed to rest. Call oil oil, and water water, and acknowledge them to be distinct in nature and value; but let no “hodge-podge” be attempted, and passed off as a genuine compound of oil and water. Call Scripture the Word of God—the Creator and Ruler of all things, and the Fountain of all Truth; and call the Newtonian or Copernican Astronomy the word and work of man, of man, too, in his vainest mood—so vain and conceited as not to be content with the direct and simple teachings of his Maker, but who must rise up in rebellion and conjure into existence a fanciful complicated fabric, which being insisted upon as true, creates and necessitates the dark and horrible interrogatives—Is God a deceiver? Has He spoken direct and unequivocal falsehood? Can we no longer indulge in the beautiful and consoling thought that God’s justice, and love, and truth are unchanging and reliable for ever? Let Christians—for Sceptics and Atheists may be left out of the question—to whatever division of the Church they belong, look at this matter calmly and earnestly. Let them determine to uproot the deception which has led them to think that they can altogether ignore the plainest astronomical teaching of Scripture, and endorse a system to which it is in every sense opposed. The following language is quoted as an instance of the manner in which the doctrine of the Earth’s rotundity and the plurality of worlds interferes with Scriptural teachings:—“The theory of original sin is confuted (by our astronomical and geological knowledge), and I cannot permit the belief, when I know that our world is but a mere speck, a perishable atom in the vast space of creation, that God should just select this little spot to descend upon and assume our form, and clothe Himself in our flesh, to become visible to human eyes, to the tiny beings of this comparatively insignificant world.... Thus millions of distant worlds, with the beings allotted to them, were to be extirpated and destroyed in consequence of the original sin of Adam. No sentiment of the human mind can surely be more derogatory to the Divine attributes of the Creator, nor more repugnant to the known economy of the celestial bodies. For in the first place, who is to say, among the infinity of worlds, whether Adam was the only creature who was tempted by Satan and fell, and by his fall involved all the other worlds in his guilt.”[42]

[42] Encyclopædia Londenensis, p. 457, vol. 2.

The difficulty experienced by the author of the above remarks is clearly one which can no longer exist, when it is seen that the doctrine of a plurality of worlds is an impossibility. That it is an impossibility is shown by the fact that the Sun, Moon, and Stars are very small bodies, and very near to the earth; this fact is proved by actual non-theoretical measurement; this measurement is made on the principle of plane trigonometry: this principle of plane trigonometry is adopted because the Earth is a Plane; and all the base lines employed in the triangulation are horizontal. By the same practical method of reasoning, all the difficulties which, upon geological and astronomical grounds, have been raised to the literal teachings of the scriptures, may be completely destroyed. Instances:—The scriptures repeatedly declare that the Sun moves over the Earth—“His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it.” “He ariseth and goeth down, and hasteth to his place whence he arose.” “The sun stood still in the midst of heaven.” “Great is the Earth, high is the heaven, swift is the Sun in his course.” In the religious poems of all ages the same fact is presented. Christians especially, of every denomination, are familiar with, and often read and sing with delight such poetry as the following:—

“My God who makes the Sun to know

His proper hour to rise,

And to give light to all below

Doth send him round the skies.”

“When from the chambers of the east

His morning race begins,

He never tires nor stops to rest,

But round the world he shines.”

“God of the morning, at whose voice,

The cheerful sun makes haste to rise,

And, like a giant, doth rejoice,

To run his journey through the skies.”

“He sends the sun his circuit round,

To cheer the fruits and warm the ground.”

“How fair has the day been!

How bright was the Sun!

How lovely and joyful

The course that he run.”

All the expressions of scripture are consistent with the fact of the Sun’s motion. They never declare anything to the contrary. Whenever they speak of the subject it is in the same manner. The direct evidence of our senses confirms it; and actual and special observations, as well as the most practical scientific experiments, declare the same thing. The progressive and concentric motion of the Sun over the Earth is in every sense demonstrable; yet the Newtonian astronomers insist upon it that the Sun does not really move, that it only appears to move, and that this appearance arises from the motion of the Earth; that when, as the scriptures affirm, the “Sun stood still in the midst of heaven,” it was the Earth which stood still and not the Sun! that the scriptures therefore speak falsely, and the experiments of science, and the observations and applications of our senses are never to be relied upon. Whence comes this bold and arrogant denial of the value of our senses and judgement, and the authority of scripture? The Earth or the Sun moves. Our senses tell us, and the scriptures declare that the Earth is fixed and that it is the Sun which moves above and around it; but a theory, which is absolutely false in its groundwork, and ridiculously illogical in its details, demands that the Earth is round and moves upon axes, and in several other and various directions; and that these motions are sufficient to account for certain phenomena without supposing that the Sun moves, therefore the Sun is a fixed body, and his motion is only apparent! Such reasoning is a disgrace to philosophy, and fearfully dangerous to the religious interests of humanity!

Christian ministers and commentators find it a most unwelcome task when called upon to reconcile the plain and simple philosophy of the scriptures with the monstrous teachings of theoretical astronomy. Dr. Adam Clark, in a letter to the Rev. Thomas Roberts, of Bath,[43] speaking of the progress of his commentary, and of his endeavours to reconcile the statements of scripture with the modern astronomy, says: “Joshua’s Sun and Moon standing still, have kept me going for nearly three weeks! That one chapter has afforded me more vexation than anything I have ever met with; and even now I am but about half satisfied with my own solution of all the difficulties, though I am confident that I have removed mountains that were never touched before; shall I say that I am heartily weary of my work, so weary that I have a thousand times wished I had never written one page of it, and am repeatedly purposing to give it up.”

[43] Life of Adam Clark, 8vo Edition.

The Rev. John Wesley, in his journal, writes as follows:—“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.”[44]

[44] Extracts from works of Rev. J. Wesley, 3rd Edition, 1829. Published by Mason, London, p. 392, vol. 2.

In vol. 3, page 203, the following entry occurs:—“January 1st, 1765.—This week I wrote an answer to a warm letter published in the London Magazine, the author whereof is much displeased that I presume to doubt of the ‘modern astronomy.’ I cannot help it. Nay, the more I consider the more my doubts increase; so that at present I doubt whether any man on earth knows either the distance or magnitude, I will not say of a fixed Star, but Saturn or Jupiter—yea of the Sun or Moon.”

In vol. 13, page 359, he says:—“And so the whole hypothesis of innumerable Suns and worlds moving round them vanishes into air.” And again at page 430 of same volume, the following words occur:—“The planets revolutions we are acquainted with, but who is able to this day, regularly to demonstrate either their magnitude or their distance? Unless he will prove, as is the usual way, the magnitude from the distance, and the distance from the magnitude. * * * Dr. Rogers has evidently demonstrated that no conjunction of the centrifugal and centripetal forces can possibly account for this, or even cause any body to move in an ellipsis.” There are several other incidental remarks to be found in his writings which shew that the Rev. John Wesley was well acquainted with the then modern astronomy; and that he saw clearly both its self-contradictory and its anti-scriptural character.

It is a very popular idea among modern astronomers that the stellar universe is an endless congeries of systems, of Suns and attendant worlds peopled with sentient beings analogous in the purpose and destiny of their existence to the inhabitants of this earth. This doctrine of a plurality of worlds, although it conveys the most magnificent ideas of the universe, is purely fanciful, and may be compared to the “dreams of the alchemists” who laboured with unheard of enthusiasm to discover the “philosopher’s stone,” the elixir vitæ, and the “universal solvent.” However grand the first two projects might have been in their realisation, it is known that they were never developed in a practical sense, and the latter idea of a solvent which would dissolve everything was suddenly and unexpectedly destroyed by the few remarks of a simple but critical observer, who demanded to know what service a substance would be to them which would dissolve all things? What could they keep it in? for it would dissolve every vessel wherein they sought to preserve it! This idea of a plurality of worlds is but a natural and reasonable conclusion drawn from the doctrine of the Earth’s rotundity. But this doctrine being false its off shoot is equally so. The supposition that the heavenly bodies are Suns and inhabited worlds is demonstrably impossible in nature, and has no foundation whatever in Scripture. “In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth.” One Earth only is created; and the fact is more especially described in Genesis, ch. i., v. 10. Where, instead of the word “Earth” meaning both land and water as together forming a globe, as it does in the Newtonian astronomy, only the dry land was called earth,” and “the gathering together of the waters called He seas.” The Sun, Moon, and Stars are described as lights only and not worlds. A great number of passages might be quoted which prove that no other material world is ever in the slightest manner referred to by the sacred writers. The creation of the world; the origin of evil, and the fall of man; the plan of redemption by the death of Christ; the day of judgement, and the final consummation of all things are invariably associated with this Earth alone. The expression in Hebrews, ch. i., v. 2, “by whom also he made the worlds,” and in Heb., ch. ii., v. 3, “through faith we understand that the worlds were framed,” are known to be a comparatively recent rendering from the original Greek documents. The word which has been translated worlds is fully as capable of being rendered in the singular number as the plural; and previous to the introduction of the Copernican Astronomy was always translated “the world.” The Roman Catholic and the French Protestant Bibles still contain the singular number; and in a copy of an English Protestant Bible printed in the year 1608, the following translation is given:—“Through faith we understand that the world was ordained.” So that either the plural expression “worlds” was used in later translations to accord with the astronomical notions then recently introduced, or it was meant to include the Earth and the spiritual world, as referred to in:—

Hebrews ii., 5—“For unto angels hath he not put into subjection the world to come.”

Ephesians i., 21—“Far above all principality and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.”

Luke xviii., 29, 30—“There is no man that hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God’s sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting.”

Matthew xii., 32—“Whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world neither in the world to come.”

The Scriptures teach that in the day of the Lord “the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat,” and the “stars of Heaven fall unto the Earth even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs when shaken of a mighty wind.” The Newtonian system of astronomy declares that the stars and planets are mighty worlds—nearly all of them much larger than this Earth. The fixed stars are considered to be suns, equal to if not greater than our own sun, which is said to be above 800,000 miles in diameter. All this is proveably false, but to those who have been led to believe it, the difficult question arises,—“How can thousands of stars fall upon the Earth, which is many times less than any one of them?” How can the Earth with a supposed diameter of 8000 miles receive the numerous suns of the firmament many of which are said to be a million miles in diameter?

These stars are assumed to have positions so far from the Earth that the distance is almost inexpressible; figures indeed may be arranged on paper but in reading them no practical idea is conveyed to the mind. Many of them are said to be so distant that should they fall with the velocity of light or above one hundred and sixty thousand miles in a second, or six hundred millions of miles per hour, they would require nearly two millions of years to reach the Earth! Sir William Herschel in a paper on “The power of telescopes to penetrate into space,” published in the Philosophical Transactions for the year 1800, affirms, that with his powerful instruments he discovered brilliant luminaries so far from the Earth that the light from them “could not have been less than one million nine hundred thousand years in its progress.” Again the difficulty presents itself—“If the stars of Heaven begin to fall to-day, and with the greatest imaginable velocity, millions of years must elapse before they reach the Earth!” But the Scriptures declare that these changes shall occur suddenly—shall come, indeed, “as a thief in the night.”

The same theory, with its false and inconceivable distances and magnitudes, operates to destroy all the ordinary, common sense, and scripturally authorised chronology. Christian and Jewish commentators, unless astronomically educated, hold and teach that the Earth, as well as the Sun, Moon, and Stars, were created about 4,000 years before the birth of Christ, or less than 6,000 years before the present time. But if many of these luminaries are so distant that their light would require above a million of years to reach us; and if, as we are taught, bodies are visible to us because of the light which they reflect or radiate, then their light has reached us, because we have been able to see them, and therefore they must have been shining, and must have been created at least one million nine hundred thousand years ago! The chronology of the bible indicates that a period of six thousand years has not yet elapsed since “the Heavens and the Earth were finished, and all the Host of them.”

In the modern astronomy, Continents, Oceans, Seas, and Islands, are considered as together forming one vast Globe of 25,000 miles in circumference. This has been shown to be fallacious, and it is clearly contrary to the plain, literal teaching of the scriptures. In the first chapter of Genesis, we find the following language: “and God said let the waters under the heaven be gathered unto one place, and let the dry land appear; and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters called He Seas.” Here the Earth and Seas—Earth and the great body of waters, are described as two distinct and independent regions, and not as together forming one Globe which astronomers call “the Earth.” This description is confirmed by several other passages of scripture.

2 Peter, iii., 5—“For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the Word of God the Heavens were of old, and the Earth standing out of the waters and in the waters.”

Psalms cxxxvi., 6—“O give thanks to the Lord of Lords, that by wisdom made the heavens, and that stretchet out the earth above the waters.”

Psalms xxiv., 1, 2—“The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein: for he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.”

Hermes (New Testament Apocrypha)—“Who with the word of his strength fixed the heaven; and founded the earth upon the waters.”

Job xxvi., 7—“He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the Earth upon nothing.”

Some think that the latter part of this verse, “hangeth the Earth upon nothing,” favours the idea that the Earth is a globe revolving in space without visible support; but Dr. Adam Clark, although himself a Newtonian philosopher, says, in his commentary upon this passage in Job, the literal translation is, “on the hollow or empty waste,” and he quotes a Chaldee version of the passage which runs as follows: “He layeth the Earth upon the waters nothing sustaining it.”

It is not that He “hangeth the Earth upon nothing,” but “hangeth or layeth it upon the waters” which were empty or waste, and where before there was nothing. This is in strict accordance with the other expressions, that “the Earth was founded upon the waters,” &c., and also with the expression in Genesis, “that the face of the deep was covered only with darkness.”

If the Earth were a globe, it is evident that everywhere the water of its surface, the seas, lakes, oceans, and rivers, must be sustained the land, the Earth must be under the water; but if the land and the waters are distinct, and the Earth is “founded upon the seas,” then everywhere the sea must sustain the land as it does a ship or any other floating mass, and there is water below the earth. In this particular as in all the others, the scriptures are beautifully sequential and consistent:—

Exodus xx, 4—“Thou shalt not make unto thee any likeness of anything in heaven above or in the Earth beneath, or in the waters under the Earth.”

Genesis xliv, 25—“The Almighty shall bless thee with the blessings of heaven above, and blessings of the deep that lieth under.”

Deut. xxxiii, 13—“Blessed be his land, for the precious things of heaven; for the dew; and for the deep which couched beneath.”

Deut. iv, 18—“Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves, and make no similitude of anything on the Earth, or the likeness of anything that is in the waters beneath the Earth.”

The same idea prevailed among the ancients generally. In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Jupiter, in an assembly of the gods, is made to say, “I swear by the infernal waves which glide under the Earth.”

If the earth is a distinct structure standing in and upon the waters of the “great deep,” it follows that, unless it can be shown that something else sustains the waters, that the depth is fathomless. As there is no evidence whatever of anything existing underneath the “great deep,” and as in many parts of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans no bottom has been found by the most scientific and efficient means which human ingenuity could invent, we are forced to the conclusion that the depth is boundless. This conclusion is again confirmed by the scriptures.

Jeremiah xxxi, 37—“Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar, the Lord of Hosts is His name. If these ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. Thus saith the Lord: if heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the Earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel.”

From the above it will be seen that God’s promises to his people could no more be broken than could the height of heaven, or the depths of the Earth’s foundations be searched out. The fathomless deep beneath—upon which the Earth is founded, and the infinitude of heaven above, are here given as emblems of the boundlessness of God’s power, and of the certainty that all his ordinances will be fulfilled. When God’s power can be limited, heaven above will no longer be infinite; and the mighty waters, the foundations of the earth may be fathomed. But the scriptures plainly teach us that the power and wisdom of God, the heights of Heaven, and the depths of the waters under the Earth are alike unfathomable; and no true philosophy ever avers, nor ever did nor ever can aver, a single fact to the contrary.

In all the religions of the Earth the words “up” and “above” are associated with a region of peace and happiness. Heaven is always spoken of as above the Earth. The scriptures invariable convey the same idea:—

Deut. xxvi., 15—“Look down from Thy holy habitation, from Heaven, and bless Thy people Israel.”

Exodus xix., 20—“And the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai.”

Psalm cii., 19—“For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary: from Heaven did the Lord behold the Earth.”

Isaiah lxiii., 15—“Look down from Heaven, and behold from the habitation of Thy holiness and of Thy glory.”

Psalm ciii., 11—“For as the Heaven is high above the Earth.”

2 Kings ii., 11—“And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into Heaven.”

Mark xvi., 10—“So then after the Lord had spoken unto them he was received up into Heaven.”

Luke xxiv., 51—“And it came to pass, while He blessed them, He was parted from them, and carried up into Heaven.”

If the Earth is a globe revolving at the rate of above a thousand miles an hour all this language of scripture is necessarily fallacious. The terms “up” and “down,” and “above” and “below,” are words without meaning, at best are merely relative—indicative of no absolute or certain direction. That which is “up” at noon-day, is directly “down” at midnight. Heaven can only be spoken of as “above,” and the scriptures can only be read correctly for a single moment out of the twenty-four hours; for before the sentence “Heaven is high above the Earth” could be uttered, the speaker would be descending from the meridian where Heaven was above him, and his eye although unmoved would be fixed upon a point millions of miles away from his first position. Hence in all the ceremonials of religion, where the hands and eyes are raised upwards to Heaven, nay when Christ himself “lifted up his eyes to Heaven and said, Father, the hour is come,” his gaze would be sweeping along the firmament at rapidly varying angles, and with such incomprehensible velocity that a fixed point of observation, and a definite position, as indicating the seat or throne of “Him that sitteth in the Heavens” would be an impossibility.

Again: the religious world have always believed and meditated upon the word “Heaven” as representing an infinite region of joy and safety, of rest and happiness unspeakable; as “the place of God’s residence, the dwelling place of angels and the blessed; the true palace of God, entirely separated from the impurities and imperfections, the alterations and changes of the lower world; where He reigns in eternal peace. * * It is the sacred mansion of light, and joy, and glory.[45]” But if there is a plurality of worlds, millions upon millions, nay, an “infinity of worlds,” if the universe is filled with innumerable systems of burning suns, and rapidly revolving planets, intermingled with rushing comets and whirling satellites, all dashing and sweeping through space in directions, and with velocities surpassing all human comprehension, and terrible even to contemplate, where is the place of rest and safety? Where is the true and unchangeable “palace of God?” In what direction is Heaven to be found? Where is the liberated human soul to find its home—its refuge from change and motion, from uncertainty and danger? Is it to wander for ever in a labyrinth of rolling worlds? To struggle for ever in a never ending maze of revolving suns and systems? To be never at rest, but for ever seeking to avoid some vortex of attraction—some whirlpool of gravitation? The belief in the existence of Heaven, as a region of peace and harmony “extending (above the Earth) through all extent,” and beyond the influence of natural laws and restless elements, is jeopardised, if not destroyed, by a false and usurping astronomy, which has no better foundation than human conceit and presumption. If this ill-founded, unsupported philosophy is admitted by the religious mind, it can no longer say that—

“Far above the sun, and stars, and skies,

In realms of endless light and love,

My Father’s mansion lies.”

[45] Cruden’s Concordance, article “Heaven.”

The modern theoretical astronomy affirms that the Moon is a solid opaque, non-luminous body; that it is, in fact, nothing less than a material world. It has even been mapped out into continents, islands, seas, lakes, volcanoes, &c., &c. The nature of its atmosphere and character of its productions and possible inhabitants have been discussed with as much freedom as though our philosophers were quite as familiar with it as they are with the different objects and localities upon Earth. The light, too, with which the Moon so beautifully illuminates the firmament is declared to be only borrowed—to be only the light of the Sun intercepted and reflected upon the Earth. These doctrines are not only opposed by a formidable array of well-ascertained facts (as given in previous sections), but they are totally denied by the scriptures. The Sun and Moon and Stars are never referred to as worlds, but simply as lights to rule alternately in the firmament.

Genesis i., 14, 16—“And God said let there be lights in the firmament of the Heaven to divide the day from the night. * * * And God made two great lights—the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night.”

Psalm cxxxvi., 7, 9—“O give thanks to Him that made great lights: the Sun to rule by day, the Moon and Stars to rule by night.”

Jeremiah, xxxi., 35—“The Sun is given for a light by day, and the ordinances of the Moon and of the Stars for a light by night.”

Ezekiel, xxxii., 7, 8—“I will cover the Sun with a cloud; and the Moon shall not give her light.” “All the bright lights of Heaven will I make dark over thee.”

Psalm cxlviii., 3—“Praise him Sun and Moon, praise him all ye Stars of light.”

Isaiah xiii., 10—“The Sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the Moon shall not cause her light to shine.”

Matthew xxiv., 29—“Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the Sun be darkened, and the Moon shall not give her light.”

Isaiah ix., 19, 20—“The Sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the Moon give light unto thee. * * Thy Sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy Moon withdraw itself.”

Psalm cxxxvi., 7 to 9—“To him that made great lights, the Sun to rule by day, the Moon and Stars to rule by night.”

Job xxv., 5—“Behold even to the Moon, and it shineth not.”

Ecclesiastes xii., 2—“While the Sun, or the light, or the Moon, or the Stars be not darkened.”

Isaiah xxx., 26—“The light of the Moon shall be as the light of the Sun; and the light of the Sun shall be sevenfold.”

Deuteronomy xxxiii., 14—“And for the precious fruits brought forth by the Sun, and for the precious things put forth by the Moon.”

In the very first of the passages above quoted the doctrine is enunciated that various distinct and independent lights were created. But that two great lights were specially called into existence for the purpose of ruling the day and the night. The Sun and the Moon are declared to be these great and alternately ruling lights. Nothing is here said, nor is it in any other part of scripture said, that the Sun is a great light, and that the Moon shines only by reflection. The Sun is called the “greater light to rule the day,” and the Moon the “lesser light to rule the night.” Although of these two “great lights” one is less than the other, each is declared to shine with its own light. Hence in Deuteronomy, c. 33, v. 14, it is affirmed that certain fruits are specially brought forth by the influence of the Sun’s light, and that certain other productions are “put forth by the Moon.” That the light of the sun is influential in encouraging the growth of certain natural products; and that the light of the Moon has a distinct influence in promoting the increase of certain other natural substances, is a matter well known to those who are familiar with horticultural and agricultural phenomena; and it is abundantly proved by chemical evidence that the two lights are distinct in character and in action upon various elements. This distinction is beautifully preserved throughout the sacred scriptures. In no single instance are the two lights confounded. On the contrary, in the New Testament, St. Paul affirms with authority, that “there is one glory of the Sun, and another glory of the Moon, and another glory of the Stars.”

The same fact of the difference in the two lights, and their independence of each other is maintained in the scriptures to the last. “The Sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the Moon became as blood.” If the Moon is only a reflector, the moment the Sun becomes black her surface will be blackened also, and not remain as blood, while the Sun is dark and black as sackcloth of hair!

Again: the modern system of astronomy teaches that this earth cannot possibly receive light from the Stars, because of their supposed great distance from it: that the fixed Stars are only burning spheres, or Sun’s to their own systems of planets and satellites: and that their light terminates, or no longer produces an active luminosity at the distance of nearly two thousand millions of miles. Here again the scriptures affirm the contrary doctrine.

Genesis i., 16-17—“He made the Stars also; and God set them in the firmament to give light upon the earth.”

Isaiah xiii., 10—“For the Stars of Heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light.”

Ezekiel xxxii., 7—“I will cover the Heaven, and make the Stars thereof dark.”

Joel ii., 10—“The Sun and the Moon shall be dark, and the Stars shall withdraw their shining.”

Psalm cxlviii., 3—“Praise him Sun and Moon: promise him all ye Stars of Light.”

Jeremiah xxxi., 35—“Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the Sun for a light by day; and the ordinances of the Moon and of the Stars for a light by night.”

Daniel xii., 3—“They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the Stars for ever and ever.”

These quotations place it beyond doubt that the Stars were made expressly to shine in the firmament, and “to give light upon the Earth.” In addition to this language of scripture, we have the evidence of our own eyes that the Stars give abundant light. “What beautiful star-light!” is a common expression: and we all remember the difference between a dark and starless night, and one when the firmament is as it were studded with brilliant luminaries. Travellers inform us that in many parts of the world, where the sky is clear and free from clouds and vapours for weeks together, the Stars appear both larger and brighter than they do in England; and that their light is sufficiently intense to enable them to read and write, and to travel with safety through the most dangerous places.

If it be true that the Stars and the Planets are not simply lights, as the scriptures affirm them to be, but magnificent worlds, for the most part much larger than this earth, then it is a very proper question to ask—“are they inhabited?” If the answer be in the affirmative, it is equally proper to inquire “have the first parents in each world been tempted?” If so, “have they fallen?” if so, “Have they required redemption?” And “have they been redeemed?” “Has each world had a separate Redeemer? or has Christ been the Redeemer for every world in the universe?” And if so, “did His suffering and crucifixion on this Earth suffice for the redemption of the fallen inhabitants of all other worlds? Or had He to suffer and die in each world successively? Did the fall of Adam in this world involve in his guilt the inhabitants of all other worlds? Or was the baneful influence of Satan confined to the first parents of this Earth? If so, why so? and if not, why not? But, and if, and why, and again—but it is useless thus to ponder! The Christian philosopher must be confounded! If his religion be to him a living reality, he will turn with loathing or spurn with indignation and disgust, as he would a poisonous reptile, a system of astronomy which creates in his mind so much confusion and uncertainty! But as the system which necessitates such doubts and difficulties has been shown to be purely theoretical; and to have not the slightest foundation in fact, the religious mind has really no cause for apprehension. Not a shadow of doubt remains that this World is the only one created; that the sacred Scriptures contain, in addition to religious and moral doctrines, a true and consistent philosophy; that they were written for the good of mankind, at the direct instigation of God himself; and that all their teachings and promises are truthful, consistent, and reliable. Whoever holds the contrary conclusion is the victim of an arrogant false astronomy, of an equally false and presumptuous geology, or a suicidal method of reasoning—a logic which never demands a proof of its premises, and which therefore leads to conclusions which are contrary to nature, to human experience, and to the direct teaching of God’s word, and therefore contrary to the deepest and most lasting interests of humanity. “God has spoken to man in two voices, the voice of inspiration and the voice of nature. By man’s ignorance they have been made to disagree; but the time will come, and cannot be far distant, when these two languages will strictly accord; when the science of nature will no longer contradict the science of scripture.”[46]

[46] Professor Hunt.

Cui Bono.—“Of all terrors to the generous soul, that Cui bono is the one to be the most zealously avoided. Whether it be proposed to find the magnetic point, or a passage impossible to be utilised if discovered, or a race of men of no good to any human institution extant, and of no good to themselves; or to seek the Unicorn in Madagascar, and when we had found him not to be able to make use of him; or the great central plateau of Australia, where no one could live for centuries to come; or the great African lake, which, for all the good it would do us English folk might as well be in the Moon; or the source of the Nile, the triumphant discovery of which would neither lower the rents nor take off the taxes anywhere—whatever it is, the Cui bono is always a weak and cowardly argument: essentially short-sighted too, seeing that, according to the law of the past, by which we may always safely predicate the future, so much falls into the hands of the seeker, for which he was not looking, and of which he never even knew the existence. The area of the possible is very wide still, and very insignificant and minute, the angle we have staked out and marked impossible. What do we know of the powers which nature has yet in reserve, of the secrets she has still untold, the wealth still concealed? Every day sees new discoveries in the sciences we can investigate at home. What, then, may not lie waiting for the explorers abroad? Weak and short-sighted commercially, the cui bono is worse than both, morally. When we remember the powerful manhood, the patience, unselfishness, courage, devotion, and nobleness of aim which must accompany a perilous enterprise, and which form so great an example, and so heart-stirring to the young and to the wavering, it is no return to barbaric indifference to life to say, better indeed a few deaths for even a commercially useless enterprise—better a few hearths made desolate, and a few wives and mothers left to bear their stately sorrow to the end of time, that the future may rejoice and be strong: better a thousand failures, and a thousand useless undertakings, than the loss of national manhood or the weakening of the national fibre. Quixotism is a folly when the energy which might have achieved conquests over misery and wrong, if rightfully applied, is wasted in fighting windmills; but to forego any great enterprise for fear of the dangers attending, or to check a grand endeavour by the cui bono of ignorance and moral scepticism, is worse than a folly—it is baseness, and a cowardice.[47]”

[47] Daily News of April 5, 1865.

The above quotation is an excellent general answer to all those who may, in reference to the subject of this work, or to anything which is not of immediate worldly interest, obtrude the cui bono? But as a special reply it may be claimed for the subject of these pages—

First,—It is more edifying, more satisfactory, and in every sense far better that we should know the true and detect the false. Thereby the mind becomes fixed, established upon an eternal foundation, and no longer subject to those waverings and changes, those oscillations and fluctuations which are ever the result of falsehood. To know the truth and to embody it in our lives and purposes our progress must be safe and rapid, and almost unlimited in extent. None can say to what it may lead or where it may culminate. Who shall dare to set bounds to the capabilities of the mind, or to fix a limit to human progress? Whatever may be the destiny of the human race truth alone will help and secure its realisation.

Second,—Having detected the fundamental falsehoods of modern astronomy, and discovered that the Earth is a plane, and motionless, and the only material world in existence, we are able to demonstrate the actual character of the Universe. In doing this we are enabled to prove that all the so-called arguments with which so many scientific but irreligious men have assailed the scriptures, are absolutely false; have no foundation except in their own astronomical and geological theories, which being demonstrably fallacious, they fall to the ground as valueless. They can no longer be wielded as weapons against religion. If used at all it can only be that their weakness and utter worthlessness will be exposed. Atheism and every other form of Infidelity are thus rendered helpless. Their sting is cut away, and their poison dissipated. The irreligious philosopher can no longer obtrude his theories as things proved wherewith to test the teachings of scripture. He must now himself be tested. He must be forced to demonstrate his premises, a thing which he has never yet attempted; and if he fails in this respect his impious vanity, self-conceit and utter disregard of justice, will become so clearly apparent that his presence in the ranks of science will no longer be tolerated. All theory must be put aside, and the questions at issue must be decided by independent and practical evidence. This has been done. The process—the modus operandi, and the conclusions derived therefrom have been given in the early sections of this work. They are entirely consonant with the teachings of scripture. The scriptures are therefore literally true, and must henceforth either alone or in conjunction with practical science be used as a standard by which to test the truth or falsehood of every system which does or may hereafter exist. Philosophy is no longer to be employed as a test of scriptural truth, but the scriptures may and ought to be the test of all philosophy. Not that they are to be used as a test of philosophy simply because they are thought or believed to be the word of God, but because their literal teachings in regard to science and natural phenomena, are demonstrably correct. It is quite as faulty and unjust for the religious devotee to urge the scriptures against the theories of the philosopher simply because he believes them to be true, as it is for the philosopher to urge his theories against the scriptures only because he disbelieves the one and believes the other. The whole matter must be taken out of the region of belief and disbelief. The Christian will be strengthened and his mind more completely satisfied by having it in his power to demonstrate that the scriptures are philosophically true, than he could possibly be by the simple belief in their validity, unsupported by practical evidence. On the other hand the Atheist who is met by the Christian upon purely scientific grounds, and who is not belaboured with enunciations of what his antagonist believes, will be led to listen and to pay more regard and respect to the reasons advanced than he could possibly concede to the purely religious argument, or to an argument founded upon faith alone. If it can be shown to the atheistical philosopher that his astronomical and geological theories are fallacious, and that all the expressions in the scriptures which have reference to natural phenomena are literally true, he will of necessity be led to admit that, apart from all other considerations, if the philosophy of the scriptures is demonstrably correct, then possibly their spiritual and moral teachings may also be true; and if so, they may and indeed must have had a divine origin; and if so they are truly the “word of God,” and after all, religion is a grand reality; and the theories which speculative adventurous philosophers have advanced are nothing better than treacherous quicksands into which many of the deepest thinkers have been engulphed and lost. By this process many highly intelligent minds have been led to desert the ranks of Atheism and to rejoin the army of Christian soldiers and devotees. Many have rejoiced almost beyond expression that the subject of the Earth’s true form and position in the universe had ever been brought under their notice; and doubtless great numbers will yet be induced to return to that allegiance which plain demonstrable truth demands and deserves. To induce numbers of earnest thinking human beings to leave the rebellious cause of Atheism and false philosophy; to return to a full recognition of the beauty and truthfulness of the scriptures, and to a participation in the joy and satisfaction which religion can alone supply, is a grand and cheering result, and one which furnishes the noblest possible answer to the ever ready “Cui Bono.”

In addition to the numerous quotations which have been given from sacred scriptures, and proved to be true and consistent, it may be useful briefly to refer to the following difficulties which have been raised by the scientific objectors to scriptural authority:—“As the earth is a globe, and as all its vast collections of water—its oceans, lakes, &c., are sustained by the earthy crust beneath them, and as beneath this ‘crust of the earth’ everything is in a red-hot molten condition to what place could the excess of waters retire which are said in the scriptures to have overwhelmed the whole world? It could not sink into the centre of the earth, for the fire is there so intense that the whole would be rapidly volatilised, and driven away as vapour. It could not evaporate, for when the atmosphere is charged with watery vapour beyond a certain degree it begins to condense and throw back the water in the form of rain; so that the waters of the flood could not sink from the earth’s surface, nor remain in the atmosphere; therefore if the earth had ever been deluged at all, it would have remained so to this day. But as it is not universally flooded so it never could have been, and the account given in the scriptures is false.” All this specious reasoning is founded upon the assumption that the earth is a globe: this doctrine, however, being false, all the difficulties quickly vanish. The earth being “founded on the seas” would be as readily cleared of its superfluous water as would the deck of a ship on emerging from a storm. Or as a rock in the ocean would be cleared after the raging waves which for a time overwhelmed it had subsided.

“Thou coveredst the Earth with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. At thy rebuke they fled; and at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away ... down by the valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them.”[48]

[48] Psalm civ.

“Thou didst cleave the Earth with rivers; and the overflowing of the waters passed by; and the deep uttered his voice and lifted up his hands on high.”[49]

[49] Hab. iii. 9-10.

The surface of the Earth standing above the level of the surrounding seas, the waters of the flood would simply and naturally run down by the valleys and rivers into the “great deep,”—into which “the waters returned from off the earth continually ... until the tenth month, and on the first day of the month were the tops of the mountains seen.”[50]

[50] Gen. viii. 2-5.

Again; as the Earth is a Globe and in continual motion, how could Jesus on being “taken up into an exceedingly high mountain see all the kingdoms of the world, in a moment of time?” Or, when “He cometh with clouds and every eye shall see him,” how could it be possible, seeing that at least twenty-four hours would elapse before every part of the Earth would be turned to the same point? But it has been demonstrated that the Earth is a Plane and motionless, and that from a great eminence every part of its surface could be seen at once; and, at once—at the same moment, could every eye behold Him, when “coming in a cloud with power and great glory.”

FINIS.

S. HAYWARD, PRINTER, GREEN STREET, BATH.

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