New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1895-09-08
LEGENDS.
STRANGE BELIEFS ABOUT NATURE AND
RELIGION.

RELIGION
NATURAL HISTORY LORE AND LEGEND Nd Be Be
ing Some Few Examples OF Quaint ana by
gone Beliefs In from Divers A nnarsa;
of Reiiabillty. any BY F. Edward Huime F. L: s.
r S A. PIP viii, $50. Bernard Quaritch. Lon
DON
Special Reference to Literature and Art. BY
II. A. Guerber. PIP. 3ls. American BOOK COM
pany.
LEGENDS OF THE RHINE BY II. A. Guerber
PIP. xviii, $50. A. s. Barnes q Co
THE LEGENDS OF KING ARTHUR AND HIS
KNIGHTS Compiled and Arr EdisIon oy Pa x
3e. Frederick Warne & Co.
THE GOSPEL OF BUDDHA According to Old
Records Told by Paul Carus. Second Edition.
PIP. xiv. 275 The Open Court Publishing COM
pany.
How useless the term medieval" is to mark
a strict division in history is illustrated by Mr.
IIulmes book the bulk Of which Is drawn, not
from writings Of the Middle Ages, but from
those of the fifteenth. sixteenth and seven
teenth centuries that u.s. subsequent to the
use Of the printing press and the revival or
learning. OF course. the superstitions exploited
by Aldrovandus and denounced by Sir Thomas
Browne are the same that may be found In
the pages Of Vincent de Beaurais. Jordanus
or Vaudeville. But they are also the same as
those which Pliny recorded and so they only
prove that antique misconceptions of natural
things lasted from the earliest times unchanged
down to the opening Of the modern scientific
era. Even at the opening Of this era there Is
no such chasm between the old and the new
as there was between the old and the new re-
lgion at the time OF the Reformation, or be-
tween the old and the new learning at the time
Of the Renaissance. The vast number OF obscr-
Oh hy hp
naturaIlsts were appropriated by their more
systematic successors and errors were eliini-
mated so gradually that their disappearance
was hardly noticed. But the change In the
attitude Of naturalsts toward their material
was complete from the moment when the
thought Of experiment entered their minds
The old question had been In effect, "Who Is
authority for this alleged fact?' If anybody
could answer, Aristotle or Pliny. or Albertus
Magnus or some Church father. that settled IT,
But the new question tmdy asked at first
was Has this thing ever been tested?"
vertable experiment was worth all the au-
thority In Christendom Mr.. Hume illustrates
this point by several quotations from Sir
Thomas Brownies Vulgar Errors For ex-
ample. the older science taught on the authority
OF an antique tradition that there was an In
veterate hatred between spiders and toads.
Browne simply put toad and several spiders
together under glass and watched them. The
spiders walked all over the toad with the same
Indifference that they would have shown II II
had not been there at all. and when the toad
felt hungry It ate the spiders-and there was
an end Of chapter in natural history when
had been industriously written and rewritten
for ages "Is 1t not extraordinary that so small
a creature a remora can stop SNIP was
the query Of the old philosophers. But can
the remora stop ship" This WAS the question
of later times and even forecastle science now
reluctantly confesses that 1t cannot.
But this distinction between the old time and
the new fades away when II comes to be seen
that the real naturasts have in all ages shown
the same disposition to get at the facts. Mr..
Hulme shows that medieval naturalists were
honest searchers after truth. But they were
wandering In such a wilderness of popular
bunders that they were lucky TO clear even
a small space for themselves. Their successors
were merely more numerous. not more intelli-
gent The latter also gained a better and bet
ter hearing among the people while the pio-
neers could get few to listen except when they
were wrong. Their Investigations were ham
pered moreover by the need of finding moral In
every phenomenon, and there were those who,
rejoicing in the possession OF neat and useful
story with the proper moral tag, said to them
selves Never mind about the facts Mr..
Hume quotes St Augustine as saying this al
most In so many words Whether the eagle
broke off the end Of its beak on stone or not
was Indifferent to this saint, but what the
statement meant TO sermonizer on the look
out for Illustrations was to him all important.
Mr.. Hume dwes on the credulity OF the
medieval public On this point a great deal
Tbo hoe Of rot nye
the defect OF believing whatever 1t is told. If
credulty is medieval. there is enough
mediaevalism yet and to spare. Modern people
can visit museums The strangest creatures
are collected for them to see But the
medieval naturalist could only guess from
hearsay what animals he had never seen were
like Naturally he erred In all directions, but
particularly in attrIbuting human traits to the
Participating hatred and malice for example.
where there nothing but hunger, and sym
pathy where the fact was merely one of safety.
But when 1t came to a direct report Of observa-
tons. he was often right when he was thought
to be wrong. lie said there pygmles In
Africa, and his statement has been confirmed.
lie believed In the gorilla, and though his de-
tails were bad his notion on the whole
not wrong. or course. when II comes 10 the
unicorn and the phoenix and the dragon. the
baslsk, the cockatrlce, the griffon and the
roc. modern science cannot furnish n suggcs-
ton OF the natural facts to which these fancles
answered. Nevertheless these creations OF
mans lima gination remain 10 this day more in
teresting than many real animals. Mr.. Humc's
book is attractive AZ n brief study among for
gotten books and It's illustrations. copied from
ancient woodcute are distinct aid TO the text.
Mr.. Guerbcr does not take sides questions
relating TO the origin or the antiquity OF the
Scandinavian mythology lie merely points
out that some hold II TO be largely a working
out OF Christian ideas as vaguely understood
by the Mortimer from their converse with
more advanced races He rarely attempts to
distinguish among the gods who most likely