Chapter 66

AND OTHER STORIES 59 own purpose, therefore, if not for the purpose of justice, it is indispensable that our first step should be the determination of the identity of the corpse with the Marie Roget who is missing. “With the public the arguments of ‘L’Etoile’ have had weight; and that the journal itself is convinced of their importance would appear from the manner in which it commences one of its essays upon the subject — ‘Several of the morning papers of the day,’ it says, ‘speak of the conclusive article in Monday’s “Etoile.” ’ To me this article appears conclusive of little beyond the zeal of its inditer. We should bear in mind, that in general it is the object of our newspapers rather to create a sensation — to make a point — than to further the cause of truth. The latter end is only pursued when it seems coincident with the former. The print which merely falls in with ordinary opinion (however well founded this opinion may be) earns for itself no credit with the mob. The mass of the people regard as profound only him who suggests pungent contradictions of the general idea. In ratiocination, not less than in literature, it is the epigram which is the most immediately and the most universally appreciated. In both, it is of the lowest order of merit. “What I mean to say is, that it is the mingled epigram and the melodrame of the idea, that Marie Roget still lives, rather than any true plausibility in this idea, which have suggested it to ‘L’Etoile,’ and secured it a favorable reception with the public. Let us examine the heads of this journal’s argument, endeavoring to avoid the incoherence with which it is originally set forth. “The first aim of the writer is to show, from the brevity of the interval between Marie’s disappearance and the finding of the floating corpse, that this corpse cannot be that of Marie. The reduction of this interval to its smallest possible dimension, becomes thus, at once, an object with the reasoner. In the rash pursuit of this object he