344 
BIGELOW. 
2. A gentleman had a favorite tree in his yard which sud¬ 
denly began to turn yellow at the very top, the trouble spread¬ 
ing rapidly downward and involving the entire foliage. An 
expert was called in to assign a cause for this disaster and 
suggested that the leaves had been killed by spraying too 
much with oil or tobacco. But the owner was able to state 
that he never had any apparatus for this purpose in his pos¬ 
session, and that certainly no poisonous material had been 
used on the tree in question. 
These are instances of mistaken identity as to the primary 
facts and show violation of that canon of truth. 
3. A pathetic case came into my own experience some years 
ago. A man sent for examination one of those curious re¬ 
sults which are so plentifully derived from the loose reason¬ 
ing of “ planetary meteorology.” It was contained on a 
diagram several yards in length, giving curves, orbits, con¬ 
junctions of all sorts of phenomena, and it was quite evident 
that much time had been expended in its preparation. It 
seemed to me proper to return some courteous comments in 
very general language and, as I supposed, entirely concealing 
my real opinion. Soon a letter arrived from the author thank¬ 
ing me for my favor and asking permission to use my name as 
an endorsement in the publication which was proposed. He 
stated that he was an invalid, had been practically confined 
to his bed for twenty years, and that my words contained the 
first encouragement he had received in all this time. One 
could not but pity the man, considering what it must have 
meant to him, but I declined to lend my name. The temp¬ 
tation was too strong, and it appeared all the same in his 
printed paper. 
These are illustrations of criticism in which the facts are 
questioned as to their identity or truth. There is a class of 
erroneous criticism which comes from comparing two things 
not identical in their nature. Thus the comparison should 
be, A is B, but it was stated that A is C, whereas in reality 
B is not C. This occurs when, for instance, there is more 
than one possible case affording an explanation of the phe- 
