Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 9.djvu/121

 Historic Problems.

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��HISTORIC PROBLEMS.

By Fred Myron Colby.

��There are historic as well as mathe- matical problems, but there is no gen- eral similarity in them save in the name. Theorems in mathematics are susceptible of solution, if one can only get at the principles that underlie them ; but there are no known rules by which the historical student can certainly and demonstrably solve the problems that are ever appearing on Clio's scroll. A theorem of Euclid, however difficult, consists of certain logical elements ; and a series of mathematical processes will prove the truth or the fallacy of an operation indisputably and unerringly. None of the problems of history can be disposed of so readily. Assumptions of solutions can easily be made;, but these, in turn, can be overthrown by the more subtle reasoning or the profounder erudition of another. And even the assumption of the last is not received as irrevocable. They are only specu- lations at the best, dependent on the animus of the writer, and can never receive the credence accorded to testi- mony irrespective of personal consid- erations.

Many of these questions are perhaps silly ones, the more so as it does not appear in all cases what should be the conditions of the problems. And still the amusement experienced in their examination is not surpassed by the interest and importance many times attached to them. An acute observer has declared that the study of history makes one wise. Accepting the truth of this apothegm, as applied to history in its political and philosophical bear- ing, it must be no less true that an* ex-

��amination of its mathematical qualities, as we are pleased to term them, must render one subtle and profound. Take, for instance, that problem of Herodo- tus : What would have been the result if Xerxes had been victorious at Sala- mis? In order to arrive at any satis- factory conclusion, one must read through long annals, look at this and that authority, examine the religious and civil institutions of the rival na- tions ; and not only must he be conver- sant with all the details of contemporary history, but he must stand far enough off to judge of the effects pro and con upon his own age. In fact, he must bring to the investigation a mind filled with the knowledge of long years of study. No novice, no empiric, can sit in judgment upon the declarations of astute and experienced historians.

Sir Edward Creasy, in his " Fifteen Decisive Battles," maintains that Mara- thon was the important and decisive event of the Grseco- Persian war, rather than Salamis. How this could well be, when the Persians were urged on to still more desperate undertakings by Xerxes, and the Greeks had all their glories to win over again, we fail to see. Nor do we accept the assertion that Europe was saved from a desolation greater than would have occurred from a deluge by the destruction of the Per- sian armament. Greece rose, indeed, to unprecedented greatness and splen- dor after the billows of that mighty tor- rent had ceased to roll ; but has one ever thought what lay at the bottom of that majestic and brilliant upheaval? The inherent genius of the Greek mind

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