, 1866-12-16

uA hear tha great Corslcau himself; "Thn /.
Fist CcnsuI mounted, at The worst part al |
the AGENT. tho ns@l< Of IN iphab.t mt Of St, I
Peter, selected By tho prior Of the convent
a. tho eurcst-footed mule of that county,"
Such 10 thu difference between reality and
painting, truth and defamation, Again
and again hxz 1t been denied By historical
trttaca that the HuAslAus burned MOSCOW 10
prevent Napoleon from mak1ug It bis winter
quasterz; and In vain do they assert what
Mr.. Douglas. at ono time our minister to
hnssfa, has confirmed, that hardly more
than tho suburbs, where the Frcach we1e
quar.ertd, were on fire, to cover the Russian
attack. Mse's1ls aud other 9howmcu still
renew the i1fdsduna doIoren Of the "eopda.
grafton hin paintings and panoramas.
80 long ~ biography u written. pr an es-
saSest loycs to point bis motal with IN anec~
dote, VIC shall hear the story Of Newton md
his dog Diamond, which DESTROYED the
papers which the philosopher aet himself 80
patiently 70 re-~stte-albeit the dog was a
myth. and neither purrlng ppas nor spsight-
II poodle were allowed within the prtciucts
Of the mathematielan's thougtt-hallowed
rooms. But the apple-the falling of the
applet Surely, the tynx-csed critics Of Ills
tory, who have cheated US out of 80 many
pleasing Illusions, will lot rob Us Of taatf In
one sense, 1t Is Of little consequence whether
the story be tue or false. Unless observed
By q raind already 20 prepared to make the
discovery that any falling body would have
started tho proper train OF Ideas, the fs!l1ng
Of ten thousand apples could have led to no
discovery Of gravitAtion. But what are the
fncts! We have. for the story, the Authority
Of several OF Newton'a trienla, aud the
opinion Of n. Blot, the, eminent French
savant, amer scrutiny Of all the facts 10 the
case; yet, eir David brewster, Ee.toa'a
lateet bioGrophas, who In the first edition OF
his work, declared his disbelief Of the s.erf.
| sticks still to hts incredulny; and shetar-
iclans mrst still refer with as little conf
/ dence as eloquent eject to "Sewton and
the Gallin2 applet
But rolumes might be dlied with the er-
| Eors that, aEaln and again exploded, have
! obtained a new lease Of life, and arc thirty
| but ono more, lest. the reader, instead Of
thanking, may chlde Us for discrchanting
hin in regard 10 what have been called the
mock pearls of history, aud e1claiua Tith
Horne e7s crazy citizen Of Argos, after be had
been cured By hellebore Of hi halluciaa-
| tons:
..ls M!s TO- sa~s me: Better 1as have died,
! 1hAn thus bA rubbed Of pleasure SO seaeed,
| Tha dear deloalo1 Of q r7ptured uiad."
! Perhaps the best example of the vitality
Of a popular fa1lacy Is the overhackaered
| piece Of nonsense attributed to Archimedes,
lint, ''etve him plaea to fix q prop for his
lever, ind he would move the worlds, This
Is one Of the standard illusions, part Of
the necessary stock In trade, Of all orators,
poets and newspaper writerd; and persons,
| whenever they meet with 1t. th1nk of Archi-
snedes as M extraordinarily great nan-a
giant Of the intellectual giants-and cry,
Really, how wonderful"
Now, II Is we'll known principle Of me-
shanical forces that the se1ocitles are to the
| eStremlties Of q lever reciproca11y rs the
weights Of the two powers, and the leugths
Of the artns directly IS those same veloci
tics. So It hus been shown that u, At the
moment when Archimedex uttered his mem.
o1nblc saying, God hsl taken him at bis
word by furnishing him with place, prop aud
lever, together with counter-weisht Of two
huud.cd pouud.-thc point deppui being a,
three thousand leagnes from the centre O.
tho earth-the great geotneter would have
required a lever Of t,ctlre qaadrigion& O.
miles long, and d velocity at the cxtrcmlt,
Of the 1onv arm equal to that of a cannon
ball, to raise the earth one inch Ia twenty
scvcu hundred thousand thousand millions
or twenty sercn billions Of years! Yet viii
this exposure Of the colossal absardit7 b
cf any use! u not the slightest. Oratur
will continue to employ this buyars Q
rhetoric, and persons will continue to gap
with aston,sh1ncDt ut the boast Of Aschs
medes, rs ever Aag1sa ess Esupidaas, Ct pre-
! tuiekI