The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1867-01-19
CHARLES TON.
! s,rURDAy MORNING, JANUARY 10, 1867.
HISTORIC DOUBTS.

.The truths Of history are lies-erery one OF
them" This appears to bc the sum anu SUD
stance Of all modern historical teaching. falth Is
natural to the child and according to this school
of philosophy, the great task IN LIE, the oo]cc5
Of all learning, in n7truction and knowledge, is 10
believe nothing,-to doubt everything. In many
cases this sublime degree of dstrust is not attain
ed before old age and still oftener men leave tnis
world in happy ignorance of the exactlng require
ments of unbelicf. Some OF this latter class
there may be, so ignorant of their own ignorance,
that they may even question the utility OF no
spent in'endcaroring to show that nobody don I
know nothing.
Doubling philosophers there hayo always boon,
and always will bo; to doubt is one OF the ldlosyn-
craces of human character, which, If not combat
tod, must end in unmoorinS thevery anchors OF De-
iof But it is not our object 20 speak OF thus class
Of doubters. We have no quarrel at this time,
either with the material philosopher or the ln1del
in religious sense. We refer to the class OF
scholars whose pride it is to unsette popular con-
yiction in historic truth. The younger NEBuHn.
in modern times, may be considered the father OF
this nefarious brood. GIBBoN, it is true, by M
artful colocation of facts succeeded in throwing
doubt upon the truths of Christianity, without ap-
pearing to do so designedly. Others, by speclous
arglner ], haze, at various times, endeavored to
mako history corroborate some previously con-
ceiyed theory in politics, philosophy or religion
Few. indeed, can be entirely absolred from such
partiaIty.
But it is otherwise with historian like NIEBUHR,
who, of set purpose, goes to work to sap the foun-
dations Of history. very Puritan in his hatred
Of Popery, he seemed to carry this same anlmoslty
to every other antiquated Roman superstition
he was the first TO show that RoMULus and REnIUs
were not sucked by she-wolf; that Rome was not
built by these SAID founders, nor at the time usu-
ally supposed; that the Rape of the Sabines is
myth that EaER1A WAS no nymph at all that the
combats between the Horatii and Curatn waro
ssauld wives tales ;" that TARQUINTUs, in the Ian
guage of SYDNEY SMITH was . very good family
man; that the title of the modern Anserines to
ancient nobility was spurious, geese mover having
saved the capitolin fact it is now ascertaned tina
tho geese did not cacke at all. The Caudine
Forks arc mere legend, HANNIBAL is not yet
entirely put aside, NO believe but it is now cer-
tainly ascertained that he did not blast the Alps
VIII TlQepuI MOuCAu "lUAA oAAS oAo W
competent corps of analytical chemists, have
demonstrated that tho work could not have been
accomplished with acetic acid, and, in fact, that
HASNIpAL was not in possession Of any such
chemical compound. The s.jewels" OF CoREELIA
have turned out nero paste. CICERO, they say,
was . coward and coxconb never delivered his
orations against CArA1nE; that the latter gentle
man was very respectable citizen and no con-
sprator; That SALLUsT, the teacher of virtue was
great rascal, and CESAR never laid 'sTent, uidi,
uici;" that LivY vas perfect 1IUEcHHAUsEN; !; that
HORACE WAS a scamp, ard OVID, it is now ascer-
taincd, was very good but iI-used young man
that NERO has been much sandered, and old
BEL1sAR1us was not blind at all.
When We como down to CHARLEMAGNE, wo find
matters still worse, the several ancient md me-
dayal historians having scarcely left la shrod Of
him. It is now grayely contended by many that
there never was any such man as CARoLUs MAGNUs.
FREDERIC DAEBAnossA, the great German EN-
pcror, has been proven fgment of the fancy; and
this too, while it is well known that the old gen.
tlenlan is sleeping il. his tower in the Kyllaussen
mountain in Thurngia, where he is patiently watt
ing for tho unifcation Of the fatherland. Here
he has long been sleeping, his chin resting on
his hands, and his elbows on marble table, and
his long beard grown through the stone. Every
hundred ycars no awakes, nni sends out raven to
see if Germany is united. Whenever the raven
shall como back with an affirmative reply BARBA-
nossA will como forth, and again bc father to the
German people. Yet, tho skeptic Of history, with
his superior wisdom, comes and tells the good
people, your good Emperor, with the red beard, is
q hu1nbug.
We are asked to believe that ALFRED novor
burned the bannocks, nor over entered the Danish
camp in minstrel's guiso; that the 'Fair Rosa
mond" is myth; that Prince Hal was milksop
and Falstaff tho jolly Knight, tho baseloss fabric
Of q vision that burly Harry VII. was very
proper sort of husband, and Queen Anne Boleyn
no better than she should be- Nay worse than all,
Miss Bacon, down-east young lady, grnvcly tells
ns that it was not SHAKESPEARE who wrote Shak-
spcako, but that Lord BACON wroto Shakespeare
and very lately Missouri Judge, profound in his
torical research, comes forward in o book Of dig.
niied Dimensions and first rate argument, cndors-
ing Miss Bacon's theory.
We are told that CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS never
mcde that egg stand on end, nor was the first who
discovered America; that LIE SAGE did not writo
Gil Bias, but stole the manuscript from Spanish
MONK and translated it into French; that Sir VAL
TER RALEIGH did not throw his cloak into the gut
ter that ELIZABETH was not entitled to her virgin
epitaph and that MARY, Queen OF Scots, was a
model of chastity; that the first JAMES OF England
was q very wise monarch, and that OLIVER CRoaI-
WELL was scoundrel and a l,ypocrite; that tho
Emperor CHARLES v. was very ordinary man, and
was livery pious apd tcnder-hcarted gentleman;
that Marshal NEY was not the last Of tho Grand
Army and had never said that he was; that NApo-
LEON was very bad man in his private character;
that WILLIAM III. was very pleasant gentleman,
and worry popular with his subjects; that the Pre-
tenders were not those horoes of romance we have
always been led to believe, aud that proud Cum
BEnLAND was not always prancng, insulting the
slain; and that it is all Z mistake about King
GEORGE Ill and the apple dumplings.
LEoNDAs, they say, had threo hundred and
eighteen mon with him at Thermopylao, instead
of three hundred, as is the current belief; though
some so further, and maintain that there is no T
truth whatever in the whole story Of the battle at
this Pass. They barely concedc that there is such
n place as Thermopylac. SO with Marathon
though they cannot deny the existence of the lat
tor, for Lord BYRON, a disintcrcstcd witness, re-
marks that the field of Marathon was offered him
at thesrcry reasonable prico Of four thousand
pounds storling.
Archbishop WuATEIEY wrote an ingenious PAM
phet, proving with all the forco of logic that there
never existed such al individual MS NAPOLEON Bo-
S.lpARTE. Ho did this ty using the same class Of
b1.j 1;.,EI
proving :the historic verify of the existence Of
5HRIsT; and in thus calling into question the cx-
stencc OF the greatest man thon living, or but re-
,ently deceased, he brought an analogica yeductio
I'd absurduna to bear upon their argument.