33 
ought to have been foreseen could not be ac¬ 
complished. I do not recollect to have ever 
read any of Kepler’s or Halley’s works—or e- 
ven Newton’s, except small quotations ; I do 
not know how the two former founded their 
supposition about “concentric shells c-r crusts,” 
or whether they offered any reasons whatever, 
or only guessed, as many others have done, but 
with rather better luck than their cotempora¬ 
ries or predecessors : some have considered 
the internal part of the earth “as occupied by 
solid rock, others by water, others again by/?•<?,” 
as Doctor Mitchel mentions in his first letter 
to me. Amongst so many guesses as have been 
made, soon or late, it would be extraordinary, 
if some did not hit near the truth ; but it is not 
certain that Kepler and Halley meant separate 
concentric spheres, when they said “shells or 
crusts if they meant something like strata, 
with one shell or crust lying upon another, 
those words (as stated in the Cyclopaedia under 
the Art. Ring) were sufficiently explicit; but 
if they meant separate shells or crusts, the word j 
separate should have been used; but at any | 
rate no one will pretend that the idea of open j 
poles is not original, and that, if once admitted 
and established, is of an infinite deal more im- 1 
portance to the community, than inaccessible 
concentric cavities, lbave not learned that Kep- 
l ler or Halley ventured their reputations on , 
tiie truth of their supposition, or that they did . 
any tiling more than surmise it; while I not on¬ 
ly ventured mine, by an unqualified declara¬ 
tion, but have devoted my life to the investi¬ 
gation. Had I ever read or heard of any one 
having even thought of successive shells or 
crusts, or any thing like concentric spheres, 
before I published my declaratory circular, I 
would have noticed it. and rested my claims to 
orig nality upon showing’ the way to get at 
them. But it is the establishment of the/ucf, 
that I at present aim at; and it is that alone 
which ought to occupy the pens of all candid 
writers on the subject. It will be time enough 
when I have run the ordeal of public investi¬ 
gation, and borne the theory in triumph through 
the ridicule and doub's of incredulity, and es¬ 
tablished it upon the firm basis of public faith, 
to dispute my claims to originality and to de¬ 
cide to which the laurel shall be given,—he 
who wrote a surmise without establishing it, 
or he who risked passing for a madman upon 
its truth, entered without reserve or hesitation 
upon its actual demonstration, and marked out 
the road, that conducts to its permane an * 
incontestible establishment, to the full ^tlsfru- 1 
tion of a wonderin" ”""" 11 T> 
/ 
