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Source-led transcription, lightly normalized from PDF pp. 1–2; historical claims remain those of The Flaming Sword.
COSMOGONY. (CONTINUED FROM NO. 6.) Questions naturally arise, when considering the Koreshan theory of Cosmogony, regarding the common phenomena of appearance, always grounded in preconceived opinions of the stumbling Copernican system. It is said that if one travels due east or west, continuously, he will arrive at the place upon the earth's surface whence he started. This proves that the earth is round. This is true, but it does not prove it to be convex. The same would be true whether upon a convex or concave surface. So far as this point in the controversy goes, the argument is equal. The second step in the attempt to prove the convexity of the surface of the earth concerns the appearance of the earth's extent as related to a horizontal line, and the disappearance of the hull of a ship as she recedes from view. What is the true interpretation of this optical illusion?
We are now prepared to take the first real Koreshan step in positive argument, and with a premise upon which all men agree. We maintain that ours is the only demonstrated premise, the first step of which is the plumb-line. If we suspend a plumb-line and ask ten thousand informed minds its position, all agree that it is perpendicular. Now if we describe a horizontal, from any point in this perpendicular, at any distance from the water's surface, and look out upon an expanse of water, this horizontal line or direction meets the horizon. What is a horizontal line? It is a line drawn at right angles to the line of the perpendicular. The perpendicular line, then, and the horizontal are at right angles. What is the horizon ? It is the visual vanishing point of the earth's surface, and is on a level with the horizontal line.
Let us suspend the plumb-line from an elevation of one hundred feet from a water surface, from which, at least in two opposite directions, there is nothing visible but water and sky. Two opposite horizontal directions from the top of this plumb-line will meet the two opposite horizon points. Both horizontal directions being at right angles from the perpendicular, together constitute a chord, the extremities of which are the two horizon points; the arc of the chord is shown to be the concavity of the earth, the perpendicular, extending from the chord to the bottom of the concavity, comprising the radius rector. This demonstration is absolute, and there is not an argument in the universe that can touch it. At this point we confront another objection, the result of a want of knowledge concerning practical optics.
The horizontal line appears depressed, and the objection now to be considered is one raised by the ordinar}* civil engineer, or surveyor. This apparent depression is taken for a reality, and the difficulty arises • in this way. The surveyor employs an instrument called a theodolite. It is a telescope, ten or twelve inches long, placed upon a tripod, and is used for ascertaining horizontal and perpendicular angles. Across the focus of the telescope, or' across the objective extremity, are two transverse hair-lines. Connected with it is a spirit level. The telescope is leveled for observation and the transverse (horizontal) hairline, ten or twelve inches from the eye, seems to describe a horizontal line across the sky in the distance. The real horizontal is slightly depressed from this apparent direction.
We will suppose we occupy a lookout or subjective visual point sufficiently high for the horizontal line to touch the horizon at a distance of ten miles. The line extends from this subjective point of vision to the horizon. The first mile appears to be a definite length, the second mile of a lesser length, the third is apparently less contracted; each mile apparently more contracted than the preceding one. This is called geolinear foreshortening. If the surface of the earth is apparently drawn back, (it should be remembered it is only apparent, not real,) the horizontal line is apparently depressed. This appearance, the surveyor takes to be a reality and is thus deceived, five inches to the mile. Let a person stand ten feet from the ground and look out over a level surface. We will suppose the earth curves upward eight inches to the mile. This is practically a level surface.
The first mile would make a long picture upon the retina of the eye; the second mile, a shorter one; the third mile, a still shorter one, and the fifth or sixth mile would make no picture at all. A large body standing upon the ground at the vanishing point of the last visible mile would appear to have sunken out of sight. This would be true if the earth were a dead level for ten or a thousand miles. The law of foreshortening accounts for the disappearance of an object a long distance from the point of vision. The astonishing thing is not in the discovery of the truth of the Koreshan System, but rather that men can be so preposterously ignorant as not to have applied the true laws and principles of science to the development of the true theory of the earth's formation.
The objector will ask, How can so many -great worlds be reduced to so small a dimension as a circumference of twenty-five thousand miles? They are not great worlds. The stars are focal points of light, and the planets are spheres of energy, stratified at specific distances between the earth's concave surface and the focal center. The moon is a reflection, upon the atmosphere of hydrogen, from the strata comprising the earth's shell or circumference, the energies converging through the geologic strata. The moon is a reflection of the earth, and the face of the moon presents an outline of Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America, Oceanica, etc. In short, it is a picture of the earth's surface.
The Flaming Sword · Vol. 3, No. 8 · 20 Feb. 1892 · PDF pp. 1–2