Morning journal and courier., 1882-03-17
The Science OfsHistOry.

Professor A. M. Wheeler Delivers the
 Ninth Lecture of the Mechanics Course.
 The ninth lecture of the course to mechan- ics was given by Professor A. M. Wheeler at the North Sheffield Hall last evening. The lecture was one of the most interesting and entertaining of the course and was listened to by a large audience. ''The study of history by learned men," said the lecturer, "dates from the beginning of the present century The Germans were the first to make it g science. Baron Von Stein instituted the movement in the year 1895 and Von Ranke, Hegel and Schlegel were among the great scholars of that age and country who took up the subject and won for themselves lasting renown. Undoubtedly history as a science stands as a disadvantage when compared with the natural sciences, but, after all, there is no difference between the processes. of de- termining the truth of a fact in the former and in the latter. All the actions of which man is capable are subjects for the study of the historian. He has to study men in much the same manner as the botanist studies plants or the geologist animals. To ascertain the truth of any fact the historian must either be an eyewitness to it or as more | often happens, he must take the testi- ! mony of Y eye-witnesses. In the latter ! case he must first find out whether the wit ! nesses were inclined to tell the truth and ] secondly, whether they were in condition l to tell it. To detect lie in history is com paratively easy The difficulty arises when l we know that the witness tries to tell the 1 truth and we are forced to decide whether he ! is capable of telling it. To this end must be 1 brought to bear cool, calm, refecting reason. I The tendency to distort the truth is so strong ! that men even in writing their own memoirs ! will nisstate facts. Sympathy also shakes the judgment and the chronicler of events is
 almost to be biased one way or the other.'
 These general statements were illustrated by many amusing anecdotes of history that ! were considered true until within a few years, but which careful study and sitting of
 the evidence has proved false. Archimedes | cried ''Eureka" not when he invented the l screw, but when he discovered the law ot l gravity, which latter was assigned to Newton,
 who lived centuries later. The story oi l Columbus and the egg was related of hun
 dred persons hundreds of years before Columbus was born. Leonardo da Vinci was
 reported as having died in the arms ot
 Fracis I. of France but he really died at {
 place over one hundred miles from
 where the King was at that time T The coffin of Charles l. was not opened by
 Oliver Cromwell as stated, but remained
 closed until the reign of George ". Louis
 XIV. did not say ''L'et0t, c'est ma0i"-it was said by some one else hundred years before
 The reported jokes and witticisms of kings
 seem to cluster around the popular ones
 whether they really said them or not. Only
 ridiculous ones are told of the able but un
 popular Louis XIII. Napoleon was by nc
 means personally acquainted with all of his soldiers.
 The next lecture of the course will be giver next Tuesday evening by Professor Johnson s. Platt, of the Yale Law School. The sub ject, ''What is 8 Contract, is highly inter
 esting one and will be ably treated.