420 A Century of /Science 



taunts or exposure, will ever rouse the energies of 

 a single champion.&quot; In other words, astronomers 

 do not waste their time in noticing Mr. Hampden s 

 taunts and threats. Why is this so? His next 

 sentence reminds us that &quot; cowardice always ac 

 companies conscious guilt.&quot; He goes on to tell 

 us the true state of the case: &quot;The earth, as it 

 came from the hands of its Almighty Creator, is a 

 motionless Plane, based and built upon foundations 

 which the Word of God expressly declares cannot 

 be searched out or discovered. . . . The stars are 

 hardly bigger than the gas jets which light our 

 streets, and, if they could be made to change places 

 with them, no astronomer could detect the differ 

 ence.&quot; The North Pole is the centre of the flat 

 earth, and its extreme southern limit is not a 

 South Pole, but a circle 30,000 miles in circum 

 ference. Night is caused by the sun passing be 

 hind a layer of clouds 7000 miles thick. It is not 

 gravitation which makes a river run down hill, 

 but the impetus of the water behind pressing on 

 the water before. Is not this delicious ? As for 

 Newton, poor fellow, he &quot; lived in a superstitious 

 age and district ; he was educated among an illit 

 erate peasantry.&quot; This is like the way in which 

 the Bacon izing cranks dispose of Shakespeare. So 

 zealous was Mr. Hampden that in 1876 he began 



