The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1891-02-22
THE AGE OF CHARLATANS.
Some Cynical Remarks From a Boston
Philosopher.

Some Cynical Remarks From a Boston
Philosopher.
Boston Saturday Gazette.
1t is interesting to note how history repeats
itself in this our blessed nineteenth century
that is, history of the small and vulgar kind. I
am persuaded that if it were possible to reincar-
nate some medieval philosopher he would be
perfectly at home in any of the great cities of
the world; he would find the same superstitions
that he loved parading under new names; he
would find the same militant theology, only
with its nails clipped; the same love of the
marvellous, the same Utopian theories, and the
same indifference to the practical affairs of life
The so-called "thought transference" and palm
istry he would recognize as very old friends;
spiritualism would make him feel thoroughly
at home, and even many Of our latest scientific
discoveries would present no novelty to him.
The bacteria-injection cure he would accept as
modification of his own sympathetic power
cure, and the pertinacity with which it's
failures are disregarded would persuade him
that time stands still in place Of advancing.
The hair oft he-dog- hat-bit-you hypothesis is
so firmly established that our philosopher might
mistake Pasteur for Paracelsus, and Koch for
Sir kenelm Digby. Curing anthrax by an in
fusion of rats spleen would suggest to him the
medieval "doctrine Of signatures'- as
Paracelsian explains, "the leaves of the white
stone-crop. have an analogy with the gums; thus
the plant Is an excellent anti-scorbutic The
flowers of the lily of the valley resemble drops
thus they are good for apoplexy, (guttG.) The
roots OF the bryony look like swollen foot
and are good for dropsy." The Lourdes mira
cles would fit in very well with the miracles de-
scribed by Erasmus, and our philosopher would
survey civilization, and say with Paracelsus
"Neither man nor the devil invents anything %
Now, l am not lover of the good old times
which to me are bad old times-and my object
ion is, that we are infusing too much of the
diseased blood of the past into the body of the
present. tinge of quackery is in everything
in art, science, literature, and In life generally
We still have sneaking kindness for mysteries
and impossible promises, and we feed our
morals as well as our stomachs on the most ex-
tensiVely advertised patent medicines. We have
only to compare a Jenner with Koch to
demonstrate the downward curve of descent
of the present day. Charlatanism appeals to us
as 1t appealed to our medieval ancestors; we
make humbug the fashion, and then use it as
making heroes OF our day are all charlatans,
talented or stupid, and the tendency is to force
talent into charlatanism. Now, far be it from
me to ridicule this useful art, upon which
modern society is founded; but always char
latanism, like always partridge, is a..monotonous
diet, and |, for one, should like to have little
change by way of contrast. If we must initiate
let it be the best, and not the worst, traits of
our ancestors; or, if we must be fools, let us be
original FOOLS as we easily can be if we go the
right way to work. For my part, however, l
should prefer to see humbug effaced from the
arts and sciences, and kept for the sole use of
fashionable life, where it properly belongs.
A quack artist, quack, scientist, or quack
musician is self-contradiction, and yet this is
the inevitable outcome of our present method
of dealing out prizes. Our gift to posterity is
patented vacuum, guaranteed not to contain
one germ OF genius, and this is the only novelty
that our over-busy generation has produced.