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," "immutable path of its orbit," etc, convinced the greater
part of the "intelligent" community that he who used them so flippantly
must be an exceedingly great man. Therefore, he had completely proved
his case. Therefore, the great majority of the ladies and gentlemen that
regularly attend the scientific lectures of the Peabody Institute,
pronounced Barbican's fate and that of his companions to be sealed. Next
morning's newspapers contained lengthy obituary notices of the Great
Balloon-attics as the witty man of the _New York Herald_ phrased it,
some of which might be considered quite complimentary.
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