92 KNOWLEDGE AND OPINION. 



in it. Our public teachers are always disagreeing 

 among themselves, and fighting out their little 

 differences, as Horace said actors should not kill 

 their victims on the stage, " before the people," 

 in the daily newspapers. But, when we come 

 to look a littie more closely into the matter, the 

 justice of the complaint is far more apparent than 

 real. In every science, or, in other words, in 

 every department of knowledge, the vast body of 

 ascertained fact far outweighs the small residue of 

 undecided opinion. Take, for example, mathe- 

 matics. It is quite certain that four times four 

 are sixteen ; it is incontestably proved that, if 

 nine be taken from twenty, eleven remains; and 

 it is practically undeniable that in English meas- 

 urements two pints go to the quart, eight ounces 

 equal half a pound, and thirty pence make two- 

 and-six-pence. Take history, again. It may not 

 be accurately settled whether Julius Cajsar landed 

 at Deal or at Dover; whether Queen Elizabeth 

 was really in love with Essex ; or whether the 

 Duke of Wellington at Waterloo did or did not 

 say, " Up, Guards, and at 'em ! " — but at least 

 the Roman occupation of Britain, the main facts 

 as to the Spanish Armada, and the historical 

 reality of the Battle of Waterloo, are fairly beyond 

 all cavil. There may be persons who have in all 

 seriousness what Archbishop Whately pretended 

 to have for a satirical reason, " Historic Doubts as 



