Symmes's Theory of Concentric Spheres

The author of the following pages does not write because he is a learned man; he is conscious of the reverse; and that his merits give him no claim to that appellation; neither does he make this attempt because he is well acquainted with either the new, or the old theories of the earth; but, from having observed that the Theory of Concentric Spheres has been before the world for six or seven years, without attracting the attention of the scientific, except in a very few instances;—few besides the author himself having come forward to advocate its correctness. The newspaper scribblers, who have noticed the theory at all, have almost uniformly appeared to consider it as a fit subject on which to indulge their wit, the sallies of which, clothed in all the humour and satire their fancies could suggest, have in some degree had a tendency to throw around it an air of levity very unfavourable to serious investigation. But to deal in sarcasm is not always reasoning; and the truth is not to be ascertained by indulging in ridicule.