The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1867-01-19
Oh AR q T. S TON. ;.

CHI ARL T. S TON.
SATURDAY MORNING, JANUARY 10, 1867.
HISTORIC DOUBTS.
tTho truths of history are ies-every ono OF
them" This appears to be the sum and sub
stance Of all modern historical teaching. Faith is
natural to the child, and according to this school
Of philosophy, the ono grcat task in fe the object
Of all learning, in 'tructon and knowledge, is to
believe nothing, to doubt everything. In mary
this sublime degree Of distrust is not attain
ed before old age and still oftenor men leave this
world in happy ignorance Of tho exacting require
mont. OF unbelief Some Of this latter class
there may be, 80 ignorant Of their own ignorance,
that they may even question tho utility Of q Ifo
spent inendeavorinK to show that nobody don't
know nothing" .ss..ta.
Doubling philosophers there have always been,
and always will be-; to doubt is Of the idiosyn-
cracies Of human character, which, il not combat
ted, must end in 1lnmooring the very anchors Of be-
Lief But it is not our object speak Of this class
Of doubters. We have quarrel at this time,
either with the material philosopher or the nfdel
in religious sense. We refer to tho olass of
scholars whose pride it is to unsette popular
viction in historic truth Tho younger NXBUHR,
in modern times, may be considered tho father Of
this nefa1ious brood. G1BBoa it il true, by an
arhul collocation Of facts, succeeded in throwing
Goubt upon the truths Of Christianity without ap-
peaIins to do so designedly. Others, by specious
arguments, have, at various times, ende.vorod to
mako history corroborate some previously con-
ceived theory in politics. philosophy or religion.
| Few, indeed, can be entirely absolved from such
parsality. m #
But it is otherwise with historian like N1EBu1n,
.of~ ~oA-
dations Of history. A very Puritan in his hatred
OF Popery no seemed to carry this same animosity
to every other antiquated Roman superstition
| He was the first to show that Ronu1us and RHxus
wore not suckled by she-wolf that Rome was not
built by these said founders, nor ut the time usu-
! ally supposed; that the Rape Of tho Sabines il /
myth that EGERIA was no nymph at all ; that the
| coIRbats between the Horatii and Curatii were
'sauld vves' tales )" that TARouruus, in the Ian
guags Of SYDNEY Sau1H, Was very good family
man that the title OF the modern Anserines to
ancient nobility was spurious, geese never having
saved the capitol in fact it is ascortained tha
the geese did not eackle at AL. The eAudino
Forks are a. nero legend HANNIBAL. il not ret
entirely put aside, ne believe, but it is now GER.
tainly ascertained that he did not blast the Alps
with vinegar. Modern historians, with the aid OF
competent corps .Qf analytical chemists, have
demonstrated that the work could not have been
| accomplished with acetic acid, and, in fact that
| HANNIBAL was not in possession OF any such
! chemical compound. Tho '.jewels" Of CoRNE11A
have turned out msre paste C1CERo, they say,
was cowsrd and . coxcomb never delivered his
orations against CATA1NE that the latter gentle
man was very respectable citizen and no con-
spirator; that SALLUsT, the teacher Of virtue vas
| great rascal, and CESAR never said Tens cidi
! Usei;" Tbs. Ii1E perfect lluNoHHAuxrN that
HORACE was scamp, al OVID, it is now ascer-
| talncd was very good but iE-used young man
that NERO has been much slandered, and old
BEIsAR1Us WAS not blind at all
When We come down to CHARLHxAoxH. vo ind
matters still worse, tho several ancient and me-
dievA historians having scarcely left "a shred of
| him. It is now gravely commanded by many that
there never was any such %ap s iSfs.t German En-
| peror has boon proven hgment Of the fancy: and
this, too, while it is well known that the old GEN
teman is sleeping in his tower in the Williamson
mountain IN Thuringia, where he is patiently wait
ing for the unificstion Of the fatherland. Hero
he has long been sleeping, his chin resting on
bis hands, and his elbows on marble tab1s and
his long beard grown through the stone. Every
hundred years he arakes, and sends out raven to
500 II Germany is united. Whenever the raven
ahal come back with affirmative reply BARnA-
ROSA will come forth, and again be father to tho
German people. Yet the zkeptio OF history, with
his superior wisdom, comes and tells tho good
people, your good Emperor, with the red beard. il
humbug.
We are asked to bolieve that ALFRED never
burned the bannocks, nor ever entered the Danish
camp in minstreIs guise that the seFeir Ross
mond" is myth; !; that Prince Hal was . milkaon
and Falstaf the jolly Knight the bsselesu fabric
OF vision; that burly Harry vIu. was yery
proper sort of husband, and Queen Anne Boleyn
no better than she should be. Nay worze than al.
MISS Bacon, . down-cast young lady, gravely tells
rs that it was not snAKsPEARa who wrote Shak-
speake, but that LORD BACON wrote Shakespeare
ana very lately Missouri Judge, profound in his
tor1cal research, comes forward in book Of Dig
nlhec dimensions and frat rate argument. endors
ing Miss Bacon's theory
We are told that CHR1sropHEH Co1mqpna nevo-
made that egg stand on end, nor was tho t;rst who
discovered America; that Ln SAGE did not vrita
gu Bias, but stole the manuscript from Spanish
monk, and translated it into French; that Sir Wal
IER RALEIGH did not throw his cloak into the gut
Ter; that ELlzARETH was not entitled to her virgin
epitaph, and that MARx, Queen OF scots vas
model OF chastity that the first james OF England
was very wise monarch, and that OLIVER Caox.
WELL was scoundrel and hypocrito: that tho
Emperor CHARLES Y. was very ordinary man and |
WAI1ESsTEN mere adventurer; that RoBFspHRrr |
wss very pious and tender-hearted gentleman. |
that Marshal NEx was not the Last. Of the Grand
Army and had never said that he was; that NApo- |
LEON was very bad man in his private character:
That WILLIAM ID. was q very pleasant gentleman,
and very popular With his subjects; that the Pre-
tenders were not those heroes Of romance We have t
always been led to believe, snd that proud Cuu
BERrAND was not always pranoing, insulting tho
siain' and thst it is al mistake about King t
GEoHaE IL and the apple dumplings
LsoS1DAs, they say, had three hundred and
eighteen men with him at Thernopyase. instead
OF three hundred As is the current belief: thoneh
some 30 further, and maintain that there il 40
truth wha.evar in the whole story Of the battle .t
this Pass. They barely concede thst there is such
a place As Thermopylae. SO with Marathon
though they cannot deny tho existence Of the lst-
ter Tor Lord BzRos, diainterested witness. ra-
marks that the field Of Marathon was offered him
At the very reasonable price Of four thousand
pounds sterling. . ",- -
Archbishop WHArx1.EY wrote an ingenious nam
phiet, proving with all the force Of logic that there
lever existed such an individual as NApo1Eos Bo.
NArARE- He did this ~ using tho same class Of
arguments, relied on by deists and others for dis
proving the historic verify Of the existence Of
CHRIST; and in thus calling into question the ex-
'stence OF tho greatest man then living, or but re
n fvvy Ia I -