The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 42

Supposititious Matter

Supposititious Matter

used as mortal—in fact, a larger proportion of this slimy stuff than is usual in this particular kind of construction. There is very little of that good, old, and justly celebrated cement, called "I know," or "knowledge," which in the hands of a faithful master-builder is always mixed with "wisdom;" but this man has preferred the more modern material which he calls "I suppose." This he employs very extensively, together with that particular sort of amateur mixture, diversely expressed by the terms "I cannot imagine," "I cannot comprehend," and "I cannot believe," which, by interpretation, means "folly." Of course these form very soft and pleasant beds for the constructive elements to lie on, and they sound very well sometimes as they roll glibly from the voice of a happy speaker. It does not matter that they are only confessions of the speaker's want of knowledge. We are told "an open confession is good for the soul," and, of course, if a man who presumes to know everything is ignorant of something and acknowledges it in this way, is not that a strong reason why those who presume not to know so much should regard their monitor's ignorance as good proof of the non-existence of those things? And who would dare to differ from him, when in the magnitude of his intelligence he considers it safe to suppose certain things, of the existence of which, there is no evidence, but without which his cause must inevitably dissolve and vanish?

In this way it is no difficult matter to round off the corners of a fact which must in some shape appear in the wall, or fill up a crack in a falsehood which must be laid next to it. That is the only way that falsehoods and facts can be worked with anything like successful deception. Truth has to be distorted into the shape of falsehood, when it ceases to be truth; then it is the lie made expressely to tit another particular lie. In the present case, the first lie having been put in position, and well coated over with the supposititious mortar, the second followed immediately after as if made to fit the first; but unfortunately for the sake of the workman the mortar was not used with sufficient skill to prevent the imperfections of the joint appearing, and an ugly gap presented itself. Ingersoll cannot be a good mason. He must surely be a self-trained hewer of stones and bearer of the hod, for his lies do not fit even when made "expressely for the purpose." Here is the shape of his second: "The next thing he proceeds to tell us is that God divided the darkness from the light." False! for after affirming the creation of the universe to have been in the beginning, the writer of Genises proceeds to declare the chaotic state of the earth, and then taking a second step, he tells us that