If astronomical works be searched through and through, there will not be found a single instance of a bold, unhesitating, or manly statement respecting a proof of the Earth’s “rotundity.” Proctor speaks of “proofs which serve to show … that the Earth is not flat,” and says that man “finds reason to think that the Earth is not flat,” and speaks of certain matters being “explained by supposing” that the Earth is a globe; and says that people have “assured themselves that it is a globe;” but he says, also, that there is a “most complete proof that the Earth is a globe:” just as though anything in the world could possibly be wanted but a proof—a proof that proves and settles the whole question. This, however, all the money in the United States Treasury would not buy; and, unless the astronomers are all so rich that they don’t want the cash, it is a sterling proof that the Earth is not a globe.
