Charles IX did not fire upon the Huguenots with an arquebus from the window of the Louvre during the massacre of St. Bartholomew.
The siege of Troy is largely a myth, even according to Homer's own account. Helen must have been 60 years old when Paris fell in love with her.
The crew of Le Vengeur, instead of going down with the cry of "Vive la République!" shrieked for help.
The number of Xerxes's army has been grossly exaggerated, and it was not stopped at Thermopylæ by 300 Spartans, but 7,000, or even, as some authorities compute, 12,000.
The Abbé Edgeworth frankly acknowledged to Lord Holland that he had never made the famous invocation to Louis XVI on the scaffold: "Son of St. Louis, ascend to heaven."
Philip VI, flying from the field of Crécy, and challenged late at night before the gates of the castle of Blois, did not cry out, "It is the fortune of France." What he really said was: "Open, open; it is the unfortunate king of France."
Voltaire, on being asked where he had heard the story that when the French became masters of Constantinople in 1204 they danced with the women in the sanctuary of the Church of Santa Sophia, replied calmly: "Nowhere; it is a frolic of my imagination."
There is no evidence that Romulus ever lived, that Tarquín outraged Lucretia, that Brutus shammed idiocy and condemned his sons to death, that Mucius Scaevola thrust his hand into the fire, that Cloelia swam the Tiber, that Horatius defended a bridge against an army.
Esperanto.—Some years ago several educators attempted to develop an international language, to be used by the speaking and writing world at large. This auxiliary language is made from the roots of other languages, including the Latin. Its pronunciation is wholly phonetic. Theoretically, at least, it has tremendous advantages, for should it be generally adopted by the civilized nations, who would, undoubtedly, retain their native language, there would be a common basis for international communication, and people could get together socially and otherwise without being linguists. The growth of Esperanto is slow, although encouraged by many educators. It is problematical whether or not it will make sufficient strides to be generally accepted. It has its faults, and it is quite probable that, if an international language, or auxiliary language, is to be obtained, some other form of common speech will take its place; or, Esperanto may be changed, modified, or enlarged, so as to be more acceptable. Civilization, however, demands a universal language, one which will eventually take the place of all modern languages, the present languages to be relegated to the dead class; but natural conditions, association, and patriotism, or the semblance of them, will, undoubtedly, make it extremely difficult to introduce any other form of speech, or of writing, which would interfere with native tongues.
Failures