The Defendant by G.K. Chesterton

A book has at one time come under my notice called 'Terra Firma: the / Earth not a Planet. ' The author was a Mr. D. Wardlaw Scott, and he / quoted very seriously the opinions of a large number of other persons, / of whom we have never heard, but who are evidently very important. Mr. / Beach of Southsea, for example, thinks that the world is flat; and in / Southsea perhaps it is. It is no part of my present intention, however, / to follow Mr. Scott's arguments in detail. On the lines of such / arguments it may be shown that the earth is flat, and, for the matter of / that, that it is triangular. A few examples will suffice:

One of Mr. Scott's objections was that if a projectile is fired from a / moving body there is a difference in the distance to which it carries / according to the direction in which it is sent. But as in practice there / is not the slightest difference whichever way the thing is done, in the / case of the earth 'we have a forcible overthrow of all fancies relative / to the motion of the earth, and a striking proof that the earth is not / a globe.'