* * These have not done near so much harm as that pride and ambition which has led philosophers to think it beneath them to offer anything less to the world than a complete and finished system of nature and, in order to obtain this at once, to take the liberty of inventing certain principles and hypotheses, from which they pretend to explain all her mysteries. Thus, by blending together parts so ill-suited, the whole comes forth an absurd composition of truth and error. The real state of things escapes our observation or, if it presents itself to us, we are apt either to reject it wholly as fiction, or, by new efforts of a vain ingenuity to interweave it with our own conceits, and labour to make it tally with our favourite schemes. Speculative men, by the force of genius may invent systems that will perhaps be greatly admired for a time these, however, are phantoms which the force of truth will sooner or later dispel and while we are pleased with the deceit, true philosophy, with all the arts and improvements that depend upon it, suffers. None can doubt that by making special experiments and collecting manifest and undeniable facts, arranging them in logical order, and observing what is naturally and fairly deducible, the result will be far more consistent and satisfactory than by framing a theory or system and assuming the existence of causes for which there is no direct evidence, and which can only be admitted for the sake of argument All theories are of this character- supposing instead of inquiring, imagining systems instead of learning from observation and experience the true constitution of things. THE term zetetic is derived from the Greek verb zeteo which means to search or examine-to proceed only by inquiry.
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We are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with the original text and artwork. Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. Contents include: "Introduction-Experiments proving the Earth to be a Plane", "The Earth no Axial or Orbital Motion", "The True Distance of the Sun and Stars", "The Sun moves in a Circle over the Earth, concentric with the North Pole", "Diameter of Sun's path Constantly Changing", "Causes of Day and Night, Seasons, &c.", "Cause of 'Sun Rise' and 'Sun Set'", etc. This volume will appeal to those with an interest in Flat Earth theory, and it is not to be missed by collectors of vintage literature of this ilk. According to Rowbotham, the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars are only a few hundred miles above the Earth. He is most famous "Zetetic Astronomy", an idea that the Earth is not spherical, but an enclosed plane centred at the North Pole and encircled by a wall of ice.
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Samuel Birley Rowbotham (1816 - 1884) was an English writer and inventor. "Zetetic Astronomy" is an 1881 treatise by Samuel Birley Rowbotham.