The Russellville Democrat., 1880-10-28

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 War clouds have burst, and millions of stout men have been slain owing to the veriest trifles The cropping of Louis Vll,s chin brought on three cen turies of bloodshed, and sarcastic re- mark of Frederick the Great on Eliza beth Petrovna of Russia reused that virtuous empress to take such vigorous part in the seven years war that at one time Prussia seemed wei, nigh stricken unto death. Even Catherine II profoundly suspicious of Potsdem after the scandal about Queen Elizabeth" carefully examined her husbands eorre- spondence before she concluded an alli- arce with the royal letter writer. Per haps, had she found Frederick II con- deling with Peter III, Europe might have been spared much misery, and un- dismembered Poland been yet Tn exist ence to hold the balance between the northern empires. Nor have we been much wiser in our generation. The fourth Caffre war began about stolen hatchet, and the cutting down of a flag staff at the Bay of Islands involved us in the wretehed Maori troubles. The Cri- mean war ostensibly arose out of the dis puted ownership of a church key, and as late as 1854 some men who were consid- cred wise enough to sit in Parliament were ready to spend a considerable sum of money and many lives in order to set tie the ownership of some long-legged hogs in the Falkland Islands. Porkers, indeed, have among good Christians been always teterrima caatsd belii It is hard ly forty years since Louis Philippe threatened war against the Texan Re public because an Irate citizen had shot the tresspassing pigs of the French am- bassador. As 1t was, he prevented the Lone Star sovereignty from floating their European loan, and thus the king and the pigs combined hastened the an- nexation of Texas to the United States. The battle of the Nile was a turning point in history. But it could never have been fought had not Nelson's fleet been permitted to revictual at Syracuse, and into Syracuse it could never have gone had not the wife of the English ambassador at Naples been accidentally aware that King Ferdinand was very foolish and his qneen very much the reverse. States before now have been eeded through the accidents of ignor- ance. The Dutch are said to have flock eyed" us out of Malacca in exchange for Java by representing on the map, winch our simple. minded envoys took for granted, the one territory as large and the other as small; and among the most firm ly rooted traditions of American diplo- macy is one which represents the Eng fish commissioner as agreeing to the surrender of Oregon "because country in which salmon does not rise to the fly cannot be worth much." Laws have been altered through accidents before the queens printers boy forgot to de- liver Lord Beaconsfield's amendment to bill. Many years ago the Georgia Leg islature put a tax of Sl0 on "all jackasses, lawyers and doctors" It was originally only intended to apply to the first, but was finally imposed on the two latter also, in order to tickle the grim humor of an old planter who held the casting vote in the Assembly.
 But if trifes have determined the fate of laws and nations, accidents equally small have caused men to follow prr- suits the results of which have been not much less momentous to culture and civilization. Father Malebranche de- voted himself to philosophy after read ing Rescartes's "L'Homme"; Cowley be- came poet owing to his perusal of GDtUStT IdtiiC tSuCCHt, auu tolI Joshua Reynolds had never thought of painting until Richardson's "rreatise" fell into his hands Corneille showed no liking for any literature except the law until he fell in love and felt himself compelled to tell the lady so in poetry; and Molere might have remained making tapestry had not his grandmoth- CT nettled his pride by wishing that he could be an actor like Monrose. Balboa might never have discovered the Pacific had he not been unsuccessful as shop keeper in Hispaniola, and found it neces- sary to flee to the mainland. concealed from his creditors in cask on board Encisco's vessel; and It is certain that had Cortes become well-briefed lawyer in Salamanica, he would never have lived to proudly tell Charles V that he had given him more provinces than his father had left him cities. Ignatius Loyola was a soldier and the Order of Jesuits might never have been founded had he not accidently beguiled the tedium of inaction necessitated by wound with reading the "Llves of the Saints" Gibbon determined to write his famous work after listening to the monks singing vespers in the Temple of Jupiter at Rome; and La Fontaine was stimulated to cultivate literature after hearing some verses of Nal herbe. Men of science have often been made" by accidents as seemingly trih- ing. We shall not repeat the we'll worn tale about the apple which set Newton on the track of his great discovery, for the story is extremely mythical; but 1t is true that Flamsteed took to astronomy after having accidentally read Sacro- bosco's "De Spheria." Pennant to nat ural history after seeing Willoughby's book on birds; Bonnet to the observation of insects after studying Reaumur, and Dr. Franklin always attributed the bent of his scientific genius to De Foes 'Es- say on Projects" Faraday might have remained journeyman bookbinder had not kindly Mir. Dance invited him to hear Sir Humphry Davy lecture, and Vaucanson only took to studying the mechanism of clocks in order to beguile the weary hours which he had to pass while attending his mother at confes- sion.
 Nor is it less true that great moral and political revolutions have taken place winch might often have been avoided by the observance of trifies. Guicciardini-, for whose veracity Isaac Disraeli vouches has left it on record that so terrified was Martin Luther when the Emperor Charles V put hIm under "the ban" that had he then received some preferment he would have "renounced his errors. Rut the threateninp words of Cardinal