ROUNDHEADS AND CAVILLERS

Observer, Volume 9, Issue 554, 10 August 1889, Page 8

ROUNDHEADS AND CAVILLERS

Since old Galileo in g-ood days of old, A bit of a story to innocents told ; - Full many a sceptic And student zetetie Has dared to doubt it. like wise men of old, When the veriest tyro, would he take time to scan it, Might bet his last cent on the shape of our planet ! But lately, one day (Not in joke, by the way), T.8.D.. the braveCalled out, " By your lave, I'm going your hoary pet theory to bust, Arid demonstrate your earth's but a bit of a crust. I've factum, and datum, You've theorem inflatuin ; By nay soul, one would think that this high elevation Was derived from a spree, and caused deviation. " I look on this yarn as a bit o f f a myth ; I've a parcel of nuts full of kernel and pith. This detestable ' 0 ' Must to Jericho go ; We've settled it quite, so 'tis clearly done with, Though, attested, I know, by each son of the ocean, Till it's grown into form like some cheap Yankee notion ; So I'll rest on my rock Secure from each shock, Like the fisher of old, stick my heels in the sod, And fish over the edge with a bit of a rod." Each student of Globular Phil-os-ophee (Shades of Tim Doolan, and Phiddle D. D. !), With, proof theoretical Might dispel each heretical _ Professor and charlatan monstrosity. Don't deem it incongruous, Though rather ambiguous, If I say, that the fact of the Cross and Pole Stars, Being seen by old Wilkes, and some other good tars; With a telescope, T, In the self same degree, There's a mightier reason, I'm thinking, by far. It's not only at night You get in this plight : You'll know then in future, should this come to pass, That it only depends on the strength of the glass. Yet hold, if the question of flat or rotundity Is treated with all due respect and profundity, A dictum absurd Might be surely inferred, When the subject is shorn of apparent redundancy. If from east to the west old Sol in his flight Pursues a straight path, what happens at night ? The question's perplexing — To wiseacres vexing ; There's theories infinite, yet, something their lacks, Unless, like the fox, ha doubles his tracks ! — W. RA.TTK.A.Y. Auckland, July 19th, 1889.