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About Hesperian student / (Lincoln [Neb.]) 1872-1885 | View Entire Issue (March 1, 1879)
: i-i.-jui.iJBI GO MYTHS. VOL. VIII. m m How miuiy popular beliefs, even though supported by great names, Imvo to give way to the stern facts of the statistical table! For years the American people have willingly believed that the Indians are gradually disapearing, and School, craft has expressed the belief in these lines: "I will wenp for a season, In Illiterates fed. For my kindred nro gone to the hills of the tlend; But they died not of hunger, or lingering decay Thohand of the white inun hath swept them away.', Hut, unfortunately for the truth of these, as well as of equally beautiful lines by other poets, a prominent official of the National Board of Education has proved from statistics that the long cherbhed theory must, be greatly modi lied and probably abandoned altogether. M. MYTHS. This is an age of close and original investigation. While shams are being mercilessly exposed, nothing else, how. ever time honored it may be, is exempt from the critical examination of the icono clast. A notable phase o( this movement of the age is the zeal with which the many stories that have delighted us in child hood are attacked and their authenticity dissipated. The keynote to this warfare is evidently the determination to spare nothing that cannot withstand the sever est scrutiny. The story of William Tell, after it has long held an honored place in cur school readers, has been formally condemned as a myth by a scientific society of Geneva. The romantic story of the saving of John Smith's life by Pocohontns has shared a similar fate, and it is also declared that George Washington never ruined a cherry tree with his hatchet. When, about thirty years since the mi. thenticity of Shakespeare was first seri ously doubted, the presumptuous sceptic was regarded witli astonishment. But (lis belief in this gained ground and men arc not now wanting who dismiss, with the assumption of positive certainly, the idea Hint Shakespeare wrote the immortal plays that bear his name. In how short a lime will it be denounced as an absurd fiction that Henry Wilson was ever a shoemaker? If we mistake not, the story of Gen. Putnam's adventure with the wolf has already been assailed. Now, gentlemen, do you not carry the matter a little too far? We should not receive as true everything that history tells, but if all records and traditions are to be subjected to the most rigid tests, we fear that but a mere trille will remain for the historical sceptic to receive as authen tic. Many historical events may bo true although no longer capable of absolute proof. Historical precedents lose their regulative influence in proportion as their foundations are undermined. Caius. (3?D