Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1869-02-21
GALILEO

DIR. Delpierre denies that GalileO ever
uttered the celebrated words, :" But still
il moves" 10 doubt this protestatlon
of truth against falsehood may, at the
cruel crisis, when, at the age OF seventy
seven. he pronounced on his knees
form of recantation. have rushed from
his heart to his lips but if these words
had actually been heard, his relapse
would infallibly have led him TO the
| stake Ii is denied that he was sub
iected to the torture at all. He became
completely blind after his reeantation,
and was attended in bis solitude by has
two daughters from a convent. One OF
them was taken from him by death, but
she was replaced by other ahectiomate
relatives. who endeavored to amuse and
console the lonely captive. his letters
breathe poetical melancholy, a quiet
IRONY. an overwhelming humility, and
an oyerpoweriug sense Of WEAKNESS.
A BATCH OF FALLACIEs.
Du Par. in his Recherehes sar les
41aericans. says that Montezuma sacri-
feed annually 10000 children to the
IDOLS in the temples of Mexico. In such
assertions the improbability and exagger-
alton are so self-evident that 1t is need
less TO dwell upon them. Books tell us
2 that the Duke of Alba put to death, by
the hands Of the execution
er in the Low Countries, lS,OpU
gentlemen. while the fact is that scarcely
1000 could have been collected there.
Eyen in the tine of Titus Livius there
was so much doubt as TO the truth OF the
, LEGEND of the Horatii and the Curatll,
that be writes. one cannot tell TO which
of she two contending people the Ho-
ratii and Curatii belonged. Yet this
cautious historian related, in another
plsee, that Hannibal fed his soldiers
on human flesh to give them courage and
energy
NJ. de Humboldt, you may remember
q set himself to djsproye some OF the anec
o. dotes Of Christopher COlumbus-the ia
p bic of the egg that he is said to have
Y broken in order to make It stand up
right. and the account Of his anxiety
}, amounting to agony, among has mutin
., Gus crew, to whom he had faithfully
o promised a sight of land.
e In the history Of England, the Duk
Is of Clarence was, for four centuries, be
/ lieved to have been drowned in a but
I. of Malmsey, but the author of tn
,r :. Historic Antiquities Of the Tower O
Ie London" claims TO have entirely ex
20 posed this as an error.
ID According 10 the Abby Bartholemy
Of at the memorable battle of Thermopyla
er Leonidas, instead of resisting the Per
Id siaHs with three hundred men, con
manded at least seven thousand men, Th
learned Spon ridicules the pretende
l. wit of Diogenes, and explains it in quit
to another way. Alfred Maury endeavOl
at 10 convince US that Cesar never sale
Sc and never would have said to the pilo
at " Why do you fear? you have Csesa
is and his fortunes on board %
When we reflect on the innumerab
errors daily propagated by books, D
o. | Delepierre gets alarmed at the strans
- confusion in which he foresees all liter
an ture may 6nd itself few centuries henc
to II is very possible that historical even
Il will be even more difficult of proof th'
80 before the invention of printing, whi'
Nm NAV consequently have served to au
70 meat disorder and perplexity, rath
-. than 70 have assisted in the promoti
ar. of truth and accuracy.