"We do not possess a single evident proof in favor of the rotation"--of
the earth--"around its axis."--Dr. Shoepfer.
"To prove the impossibility of the revolution of the earth around the
sun, will present no difficulty. We can bring self-evident proof to
the contrary."--Dr. Shoepfer.
"To reform and not to chastise, I am afraid is impossible.... To attack
views in the abstract without touching persons may be safe fighting,
indeed, but it is fighting with shadows."--Pope.
"Both revelation and science agree as to the shape of the earth. The
psalmist calls it the 'round world,' even when it was universally
supposed to be a flat extended plain."--Rev. Dr. Brewer. [What
a mistake!?]
"If the earth were a perfect sphere of equal density throughout,
the waters of the ocean would be absolutely level--that is to say,
would have a spherical surface everywhere equidistant from the earth's
centre."--English "Family Herald," February 14, 1885.
"The more I consider them the more I doubt of all systems of
astronomy. I doubt whether we can with certainty know either the
distance or magnitude of any star in the firmament; else why do
astronomers so immensely differ, even with regard to the distance
of the sun from the earth? some affirming it to be only three, and
others ninety millions of miles."--Rev. John Wesley, in his "Journal."
"I don't know that I ever hinted heretofore that the aeronaut may well
be the most sceptical man about the rotundity of the earth. Philosophy
imposes the truth upon us; but the view of the earth from the elevation
of a balloon is that of an immense terrestrial basin, the deeper part
of which is that directly under one's feet. As we ascend, the earth
beneath us seems to recede--actually to sink away--while the horizon
gradually and gracefully lifts a diversified slope, stretching away
farther and farther to a line that, at the highest elevation, seems
to close with the sky. Thus, upon a clear day, the aeronaut feels
as if suspended at about an equal distance between the vast blue
oceanic concave above and the equally expanded terrestrial basin
below."--Mr. Elliott, Baltimore.
In the "Scientific American," for April 27, 1878, is a full report
of a lecture delivered at Berlin, by Dr. Shoepfer, headed "Our Earth
Motionless," which concludes thus:--"The poet Goethe, whose prophetic
views remained during his life wholly unnoticed, said the following:
'In whatever way or manner may have occurred this business, I must
still say that I curse this modern theory of cosmogony, and hope
that perchance there may appear in due time some young scientist of
genius who will pick up courage enough to upset this universally
disseminated delirium of lunatics. The most terrible thing in all
this is that one is obliged to repeatedly hear the assurance that all
the physicists adhere to the same opinion on this question. But one
who is acquainted with men knows how it is done: good, intellectual,
and courageous heads adorn their mind with such an idea for the sake
of its probability; they gather followers and pupils, and thus form
a literary power; their idea is finally worked out, exaggerated,
and with a passionate impulse is forced upon society; hundreds and
hundreds of noble-minded, reasonable people who work in other spheres,
desiring to see their circle esteemed and dear to the interests of
daily life, can do nothing better or more reasonable than to leave to
other investigators their free scope of action, and add their voice in
the benefit of that business which does not concern them at all. This
is termed the universal corroboration of the truthfulness of an idea!'"