Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1871-05-18
MIscEEASEoGs. q
The asasslaaohx

BiogF py has iOr a long time formed
the most amusing staple of our histories /;
but unfortunately most of the pearls of
these biobfaphies are very doubtful. We
have beenrcalled uponto admire mot SO
much the sayings and doings of heroes, as
the ideals of those heroes, which the bisto-
rians have imagined. Like the German
in the celebrated anecdote, they have not
sat down hon estly to describe to camel
from close observation, but to ~''eyolve" a
fictitious animal ssoutA of the depths of
their own self-consciousness." Niebuhr
has taught us, in spite of Sir G.. COrne-
wall Lewis, no longer to give credence to
the old stories of Livy ana the early Ro-
IMAM historians. but to regard the legends
of Route just as w~esbopld the old ballads
off4fgfand. We do-not believe if ROM
illus and Remus and :heir wolf-nurse. any
more than we do in the deeds of Percy at
Chevy Chase. Did that grand he. o OF ro-
nance, King Arthur, ever sit with his
chosen knights at that wondrous table
round !. Did Ianceldt love Guinevere,
and was Guinevere unfaithful? Or was
|, the whole succession of legends that SIR
Thomas Mallory tells US SO well, as much
afable and an a~llegory as the faerie
Queen of Edmund Spegser? Docs any
one believe that King Alfred baked cakes
for the neatherd's wife, Or that strong Earl
Of Warwick killed the dun COW with a
blow of his fist? Did the Industrious Ma
tilda, William the Conqueror's Queen, ex-
ecutc the BayeuX tapestry with her own
fair hands, as history tells us. or did she
only do it by proxy in the persons OF fifty
fair maidensor o!<-E
Was Cleopatra the divinity she is re-
presented to be? And at that glorious
banquet. where the mailed Antony sat
by her with the concentrated jos that sees
trouble near at hand. how did she drop
and suddenly dissolve a pearl with Vine
gar. when we have scarcely an acid strong
enough to- effect that reSultin many days!
Was not Cleopatra's pearl a sham one,
like tie bullet Of Robert Houdin or Prof.
anderson? Was Lucretia chastc? 4
German author tries to prove that she was
not 50. Did Messalina indulge in that en-
ormous vice for Which Juyenal dashed her
80 terribly? On tie French stage we
have seen,M essalina played with Il double,
Like the Cutsican Brothers Of Mr.. Fech-
ter, and the author has ingeniously thrown
all thevice on the double, and has made
tue Empress q chaste martyr. Did Joan
of Arc really exist? They say not, nova
dayS.el Her tomb has been discovered. ii
we may credit report, at Roucn, and sure
Il her c%aicined bones would not yield a
skeleton. Caesar. whose cxor5atiOn to the
pilot, Thou carries, Caesar and his for
tupe$I Casasem yehis ct iortunam eju ,
has given Eord'Bacon one Of his golden
sentences in his Essays, makes no mention
of the circumstance aud speech. both Of
which have been severely questioned and
denied. SO also the crying out that the
''Die is cast" and the thoughtful night
spent on horseback on the banks of the
Rubicon, which have furnished many an
eloquent "tag' toa speech, carry some
what of discradit with them. He himself
has not .related either incident. though
Setonius and Plutarch made 4 point out OF
each OF them.
Thus we have shown that a certain
mixture of fable exists in all history. and
that, to quote Lord Bacon, "a certain
mixture of untruth doth ever add zest."
But the harm of the .'zest' is. that it
gives the readers an unnatural appetite for
marvcls. and allows the partisan room to
disfgure the finest characters.-EsWljSh
Paper.