done by the children
that S.T. Wallace, Esq., President of the Education Board, advised an
anticipation of the usual Christmas recess by a week. Every one talked
of the Projectile; nothing was heard at the corners but discussions
regarding its probable fate. All Baltimore was immediately rent into two
parties, the _Belfasters_ and the _Barbicanites_. The latter was the
most enthusiastic and noisy, the former decidedly the most numerous and
influential.

Science, or rather pseudo-science, always exerts a mysterious attraction
of an exceedingly powerful nature over the generality--that is, the more
ignorant portion of the human race. Assert the most absurd nonsense,
call it a scientific truth, and back it up with strange words which,
like _potentiality_, etc., sound as if they had a meaning but in
reality have none, and nine out of every ten men who read your book will
believe you. Acquire a remarkable name in one branch of human knowledge,
and presto! you are infallible in all. Who can contradict you, if you
only wrap up your assertions in specious phrases that not one man in a
million attempts to ascertain the real meaning of? We like so much to be
saved the trouble of thinking, that it is far easier and more
comfortable to be led than to contradict, to fall in quietly with the
great flock of sheep that jump blindly after their leader than to remain
apart, making one's self ridiculous by foolishly attempting to argue.
Real argument, in fact, is very difficult, for several reasons: first,
you must understand your subject _well_, which is hardly likely;
secondly, your opponent must also understand it well, which is even less
likely; thirdly, you must listen patiently to his arguments, which is
still less likely; and fourthly, he must listen to yours, the least
likely of all. If a quack advertises a panacea for all human ills at a
dollar a bottle, a hundred will buy the bottle, for one that will try
how many are killed by it. What would the investigator gain by charging
the quack with murder? Nobody would believe him, because nobody would
take the trouble to follow his arguments. His adversary, first in the
field, had gained the popular ear, and remained the unassailable master
of the situation. Our love of "Science" rests upon our admiration of
intellect, only unfortunately the intellect is too often that of other
people, not our own.

The very sound of Belfast's phrases, for instance, "satellite," "lunar
attraction," "