The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-01-05
 (By Andrew James Miller.)


 Creatures, which Adam never knew: For when we risk no contradiction
 It prompts the tongue toddeal in fiction"
 We have come down to an age. when we can dare to be impatient with old fashioned theories sand fontradict ances- trial fallacies. WeS4re bdh enough to bias and questi1nY YAyAftSings which never went through the formalities of taking place.
 It is pre-eminently true that all of our ideas areptraceabie to the facts we form of nature and the world of humanity. while our belief arises out of those con- structive pictures of the world. few Of which we can know from personal ex- perience or observation. Hence, the greater portion of our faith must rest upon what we believe to be true of the varied things we hear and read. The farther an occurrence goes back to an- cient times, the more readily we re- ceive it., as belonging to a strange epoch,
 which might produce even stranger things. The poet will whisper to us .4Those things that startle me or you
 I grant are strange, yet may be true. The Greeks saw embodied in the myth ically distinguished men of former times.
 the Hellenic ideals of human virtue; the Hebrews, in Moses and the patriarchs,
 the Jewish ideals of piety. In this way, men, in all ages. have acquiesced in
 dominant beliefs, tacitly endorsing things. in which their judgments have played
 no part. In this way; too fables have
 easily become history. and we are sadly
 mixed on the real and unreal things pre-
 sented to us.
 Who is not familiar with that hoary
 fable about the deleterious effects of night air? What multitudes of victims to consumption are dying today. by reason of this unscientifc fallacy? They don't reflect that the cattle and the children of nature" as we'll as hunters, sailors,
 soldiers and others are constantly ex-
 posed to these "terrors'' and really enjoy
 more health and strength thereby.
 We have happily outgrown that silly
 fallacy. which never had any foundation.
 that marriages were made ins heaven; against the Supreme Ruler, as being the
 primary cause of much crime and unhap-
 piness in the world.
 And there is that immortal old adage
 about money being the root of all evil. A poet, with hungry children and an
 ailing wife, may write against money
 in verse. but will praise it in prose. We
 hear sophists say that 1t will not pur-
 chase love or health. Who doubts it?
 Certainly poverty won't do it. The truth
 is. money is the want of every rational person, and, to this desire, we owe the best portion of the progress of the world Again, we have that unquenchable fable as to lunacy being produced by the moon or that sleeping with the eyes turned to it's mild light, would produce blind ness. This is on par with the efficacy of the hind foot of the graveyard rabbit. or those showers of fish, lizards and frogs that never occur. 1t has as much basis of fact as the frog that was never Embedded in the stone; the wheat grown | from seed preserved 4.00o years in Egyp- | tian mummy cases; the snake that gets | into the stomach; the billions of treasure buried by pirates. the fiddling ghost and | the blood-drinking tree. Many of these | fables have been perpetuated in epigrams l and firmly believed because arising from | 6 distinguished source. In this manner. numbers of historical Actions have been
 promulgated. Raspe's Adventures of Baron Munnchausen." Is really a satire | upon the outrageous stories of real | baron of that name. The stupendous lies of this man were a monument to the art and his name has become a synonym | for extravagant speech. t9 That colossal humbug. Salmanaazar, who wrote his | tory of 'Formosa," completely hood I winked the English people for years and
 was under the devoted patronage of the | history Is replete with such fables. which are represented in such works or satires l as Rabelais. Joan of Arc, William Tell. l "Candide'' "Loki and all the many
 stories about the .pygmies, banshees,
 brownies. etc.
 The early Span adventurers. in the New World. enriched the archives of the | mother country, with extravagant monk l ish tales of the mythic Fl Dorado. the | racA of aninSters-thOSa fahled gisntesses-the Amazons, to which l credence was given by the pious poet, 1 Milton. These were supplemented by monstrous fictions about the Acephali-- those headless denizens of the Orinoco, | to whom both Shakespeare and Byron refer in their poetical writings as actual | ly existing.
 The clergy, in the sixteenth century had become so imbued with certain fic- | tions as an earthly Utopia-as pictured | by Sir Philip Sidney-that an author. who | feared to attach his name to the work, | published The Land of Cokaine," which was & satire upon their morals and pre- | tensions. The same period gave rise | to The battle of Frogs and the Mice" a mock heroic poem, written in imitation | of the Had.
 To these can be added the pretensions
 of monumental fraud-Mdm. Blavatsky, and other self-constituted inspired | apostles, who can heal without medicine or breathe without air. In fact. from Romulus and Remus. Prester John and Pope Joan. down to the present. the
 world has been flooded with popular fal- lacies.
 There are a multitude of other fables
 which have been immortaized in | epigrams. We hear enough is as good
 as feast" "a bully is always a
 coward" 'fll gotten gain never pros
 pers." rise with the lark" Hove me-
 love my dog" never laugh at your own | jest" and never look a gift horse in
 the mouth." to which could be added in
 numerable others. that could be tattered
 with serious logic and which are all
 illusions and froth.
 ftO1-3O
 0% 4 4 4 4 4 4 f < < 4 4 %0
 %& SOCIAL AFFAIRS.
 @* < 4 4 f 4 f%'% < Y < -
 IN COMPLIMENT TO
 MISS NORA SPANN. Mr. and Mrs. Alex Troy entertained
 a few friends delightfully."- at cards on Wednesday evening in compliment to l