But, perhaps, after we have become used to the new idea it will not be unpleasant. The ancients flourished in the belief that the earth was a great plane. Why shouldn’t we be equally fortunate? It may be romantic but it is not especially comforting to think that the earth is rushing through space twisting and curving like a gigantic ball delivered from the hand of an enormous pitcher. Something in the universe might make a base hit if we kept on and we would be knocked over an aerial fence and never found. Perhaps, after all, it is safer to live on Mr. Carpenter’s stationary plane.
The “Record,” of Philadelphia, June 5, 1886, has the following, in the Literary Notes:—“Under the title One Hundred Proofs that the Earth is Not a Globe, Mr. William Carpenter, of Baltimore, publishes a pamphlet which is interesting on account of the originality of the views advanced, and, from his standpoint, the very logical manner in which he seeks to establish their truth. Mr. Carpenter is a disciple of what is called the Zetetic school of philosophy, and was referee for Mr. John Hampden when that gentleman, in 1870, made a wager with Mr. Alfred R. Wallace, of England, that the surface of standing water is always level, and therefore that the earth is flat. Since then he has combated his views with much earnestness, both in writing and on the platform, and, whatever opinions we may have on the subject, a perusal of his little book will prove interesting and afford room for careful study.”
“The motto which he puts on the cover—‘Upright, Downright, Straightforward’—is well chosen, for it is an upright lie, a downright invention, and a straightforward butt of a bull at a locomotive.”—The Florida Times Union, Dec. 13, 1885. Editor, Charles H. Jones. [Pray, Mr. Jones, tell us what you mean by “an upright lie.”!!]
“We have received a pamphlet from a gentleman who thinks to prove that the earth is flat, but who succeeds only in showing that he is himself one.”—New York Herald, Dec. 19, 1885. [The reviewer, in this case, is, no doubt, a very “sharp” man, but his honesty—if he have any at all—is jagged and worn out. The “quotations” which he gives are fraudulent, there being nothing like them in the pamphlet.]
“The author of the pamphlet is no ‘flat,’ though he may perhaps be called a ‘crank.’ ”—St. Catharines (Can.) Evening Jour., Dec. 23.
“To say that the contents of the book are erudite and entertaining does not do Mr. Carpenter’s astronomical ability half credit.”—The Sunday Truth, Buffalo, Dec. 27, 1885.
“The entire work is very ingeniously gotten up …. The matter of perspective is treated in a very clever manner, and the coming up of ‘hull-down’ vessels on the horizon is illustrated by several well-worded examples.”—Buffalo Times, Dec. 28, 1885.
“The erudite author, who travels armed with plans and specifications to fire at the skeptical at a moment’s notice, feels that he is doing a good work, and that his hundred anti-globular conclusions must certainly knock the general belief in territorial rotundity out of time.”…
“We trust that the distinguished author who has failed to coax Richard Proctor into a public discussion may find as many citizens willing to invest two shillings in his peculiar literature as he deserves.”—Buffalo Courier, Dec. 27, 1885, and Jan. 1, 1886.