Part 6

Baltimore, Maryland, U. S. A., December 7, 1885.

COPY OF LETTER FROM RICHARD A. PROCTOR, ESQ.

5 Montague Street, Russell Square, London, W.C., 12 Dec., 1885.

W. Carpenter, Esq., Baltimore.

Dear Sir,--I am obliged to you for the copy of your "One Hundred Proofs that the Earth is not a Globe," and for the evident kindness of your intention in dedicating the work to me. The only further remark it occurs to me to offer is that I call myself rather a student of astronomy than an astronomer.

Yours faithfully, RICHARD A. PROCTOR.

P.S. Perhaps the pamphlet might more precisely be called "One hundred difficulties for young students of astronomy."

COPY OF LETTER FROM SPENCER F. BAIRD, ESQ.

Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C., Jan. 6, 1886.

Dear Sir,--A copy of your "One Hundred Proofs that the Earth is not a globe" was duly received, and was deposited in Library of Congress October 8, 1884. A pressure of much more important work has prevented any attempt at reviewing these hundred proofs:--which however have doubtless been thoroughly investigated by the inquisitive astronomers and geodesists of the last four centuries.

Yours very respectfully, SPENCER F. BAIRD, Secretary S. I.

Mr. William Carpenter, 71, Chew Street, Baltimore, Md.

Copy of a letter from one of the several applicants for the "One Hundred Proofs" for the purpose of reviewing them. The writer is Professor of Mathematics at the High School, Auburn, N. Y., and, in his application for the pamphlet, says: "Am a Yale graduate and a Yale Law School man: took the John A. Porter Prize (literary) ($250) at Yale College."

Auburn, Dec. 10th, 1885. My Dear Sir: Your treatise was received. I have looked it over and noted it somewhat. A review of it to do it justice would be a somewhat long and laborious task. Before I undertook so much thought I would write and ask What and how much you expect: how elaborately you wished it discussed: and what remuneration might be expected. It sets forth many new and strange doctrines which would have to be thoroughly discussed and mastered before reviewed. I am hard at work at present but would like to tackle this if it would be for my interest as well as yours. Hope you will let me know very soon. Very respectfully,

To Mr. W. Carpenter, Baltimore, Md. FRANK STRONG.

NOTE.--Unless a man be willing to sell his soul for his supposed worldly "interest," he will not dare to "tackle" the "One Hundred Proofs that the Earth is Not a Globe." No man with well-balanced faculties will thus condemn himself. We charge the mathematicians of the world that, if they cannot say what they think of this pamphlet in a dozen words, they are entitled to no other name than--cowards!

Baltimore, Maryland, May 22, 1886.

APPENDIX TO THE FIFTH EDITION.

Editorial from the "New York World," of August 2, 1886:--

THE EARTH IS FLAT.

The iconoclastic tendencies of the age have received new impetus from Mr. William Carpenter, who comes forward with one hundred proofs that the earth is not a globe. It will be a sad shock to many conservatives who have since their childhood fondly held to the conviction that "the earth is round like an orange, a little flattened at the poles." To find that, after all, we have been living all these years on a prosaic and unromantic plane is far from satisfactory. We have rather gloried in the belief that the semi-barbarous nations on the other side of the earth did not carry their heads in the same direction in which ours point. It is hard to accept the assertion that the cannibals on savage islands are walking about on the same level with the civilized nations of our little world.

But Mr. Carpenter has one hundred proofs that such is the unsatisfactory truth. Not only that, but the iconoclast claims that we are not whirling through space at a terrible rate, but are absolutely stationary. Some probability is given to this proposition by the present hot weather. The earth seems to be becalmed. If it were moving at the rate of nineteen miles a second wouldn't there be a breeze? This question is thrown out as perhaps offering the one hundred and first proof that the earth is not a globe. Mr. Carpenter may obtain the proof in detail at the office at our usual rates. A revolution will, of course, take place in the school geographies as soon as Mr. Carpenter's theories have been closely studied. No longer will the little boy answer the question as to the shape of the earth by the answer which has come ringing down the ages, "It's round like a ball, sir." No. He'll have to use the unpoetic formula, "It's flat like a pancake, sir."

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.