, 1872-11-17
POPULAR FALLAclES.

POPULAR FALLAClES.
BY FRdF. WILLIAM MATHEWS, OF THE UNIVERSITY
OF CHICAGO.
Some writer remarks that there is q wonderful
vigor Of constitution in popular fallacy. When
once the world has got hold Of lie, it is aston
ishing how hard it is to get it out Of the world.
You beat it about the head, and it seems to have
given up the ghost; and 10! the next day, like
Zachary Taylor, who didn't know when he was
whipped by Santa Anna, it is alive and Is lusty
as ever y
Proofs Of the truth OF this observation will
suggest themselves to every one. OF the scores
OF fine sayings that have the advantage Of
being fallacie,, one Of the most pop
ular is the assertion that j" 8 boaster is always
coward" It would be very agreeable to find this
so; but 30 far is it from being true, that among
the oraVest pc ople on earth are the Gascons,
Who are such t'oasters that we have derived q
contemptuous e.pithet from their name. They
are unquestion,ably the most courageous and
fery-spirited Of the Frankish race saucy. full
Of gibes, and quarresome as weasel."-and
their Talor and GOODNESS IN danger, their i'm
mense vanity, and t:mountainous Me-" a.
Emerson would term it, are so notorious that
they are almost Invariably selected for heroes BY
some Of the best; French novelists.
WasAchilfes, or any one OF Homer's heroes, q
coward? Yet tho great father OF poetry, who dis
eected the human heart as keenly as any modern
auatomist, makes his champions "crow like
Chanticleer" over their achievements on all
possible occasions. Who is ignorant, too, that
Millions Satan, whose gub1imest characteristic
is his "unconquerable will, the resolution not
to submit or yield, brags necessarily, in the
most sarcastic and biting language, Of the "fen
rout II with which he has visited the hosts of
heaven7 With IL few exceptions, the Southern
rebels we're all 1lsutferable boosters, from JEFF.
Davis downward; yet did they often show the
white feather on. the field? Did ever Drawer
man draw sword than General Wolfe? Yet we
are told that dining with Pitt, the British Minis
ter, on the day before his emba1kation for Amer
ica, he broke, as the evening advanced, into s.
disgusting strain Of gasconade and bravado.
Drawing his sword, he raped tho tablo
with it, fourished it around tie room,
and talked Of the mighty things which that
sword WAS to achieve, till the two Ministers,
Pitt and Temple, stood aghast; and when Wolfe
had taken his leave, and his carriage Eas heard
to roll from the door, the former, shaken for the
moment in the high opinion which his deliberate
Judgment had formed Of the soldier, lifted
up his eyes and arms, and exclaimed to
the latter: "Good God! that I should hare
entrusted the fate Of the country and the
Administration to such hands!" It is said
that "a barking dog doesn't bite !" but those
persons who, relying upon this saw have pro-
voked d bulldog to plant his teeth in their
calves, know BETTER Read the life Of that bray
est and most braggazt Of artists, Benvenuto Gel
lini, compared with whom FalstaR WAS an incar-
nation Of humility, and you will abandon the
popular but foolish notion that real talent is
never vain, and real courage never boastful.
Akin to the foregoing hackneYed fallacy, is
another on everybody's lips, viz, that {: brave
men are never cruel' Bravery has
nothing to do with either cruelty or
clemency; it is alike independent Of either.
There are cases, doubtless, where brave men,
not fearing their enemies, have spared their
lives; while a coward, from very fear, would
have shown no mercy. But the brave men who
have been habtually merclfu1, have been very few
Did any man, however he might have execrated
the cruelty Of Haynau, "the Austrian butcher"
doubt his courage2 True, he WAS woman
whipper, and proved himself to have had bru-
tai disposition; but did he ever show himself
pigeon-livered on the battlefield, or, il insulted
by another, would he have hesitated to measure
swords with him? Was Graham of Clsverhouse
q coward yet did he not shoot innocent peas
ants without hesitation or compunction2 Was
Bonaparte coward yet did he not, with cold
blooded cruelty, order Palm, the bookseller,
and the Duke d Enghien to be shot, and
butcher thousands OF Turkish prisoners
at Jafa !? Did he not leave legacy to Cantillon,
the would-be assassin Of wellington? Is Ma
poleon III. g. coward yet did-he-not, Ion the:
I'd of December, 1852, NOW down thousands of
the citizens of Paris with his canon to place him
self on the throne OF FTance2 Did Marins or
syl1a ever show the white feather, or the courage
OF Richard the Third ooze out, like tha: of Bob
Acres, at his fingers ends? The Duke Of Aya.
VINO shot down the Netherlanders Like dogs, WAS
never twitted OF ;imidity. Nobody ever doubted
Lord Nelson's bravery, yet British writer adj
mits that he prac&ised the most atrocious cruelty
on the Neapoltan patriots, to say nothing of the
infamous breach Of faith by which those cruel
ties were preceded.
Another popular fallacy is, that 'murder will
OUT That such acere the fact, is consumma-
ton devoutly to be wished; but almost every
year proves it's fal1acy. The crime is indeed, Of
60 startling character, and the remorse often
80 poignant, that the perpetrator cannot so
bank or picks pocket There is an astonishing
number OF cases where the crime, even after
lcag concealment, has been discovered; and
the exceptions are comparatively 80 few, that
they may well deter those who mediate the act.
Yet there have been murders, the authors Of
which have never been, and probably never will
be, revealed not, at least till the lifting OF the
curtain at the Last Day shall disclose them.
Who has forgotten the famous Cannon street
murder Of 1866, committed at o'clock in the
evening in ono Of tho most crowded thorough
fares Of London,-a crime to the
author Of which not. the slight-
est clue has yet been found7 Or who has
forgotten the Rogers homicide in New York, the
perpetrator Of which is still ehrouded from the
public eye,-a homicide that took place at 7
o'clock in the morning in the open street, within
q few steps Of Broadway, when much Of the in
,ntf. nIv t.uH IT,