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A book of George Washington's containing his book-plate has an added interest, though the plate itself is an armorial design, not at all well executed. Its motto is "exitus acta probat" the event justifies the deed. From its rarity and the high price it commands, it has probably been the only American book-plate ever counterfeited.
Hence the observation of Seneca, that the malicious attention of the envious reader dwells with no less satisfaction on a faulty than on an elegant expression, and is as anxious to discover what it may ridicule, as what it may commend; as the poet also observes: "Discit enim citius meminitque libentius illud Quod quis deridet, quam quod probat et veneratur."
Here "exceptio probat regulam:" for it is the one stock argument. The simple question is whether authority has so acted upon the reason of individuals, that they can have no opinion of their own, and have but an alternative of slavish superstition or secret rebellion of heart; and I think the whole history of theology puts an absolute negative upon such a supposition.
Never did a family bear such an appropriate coat of arms: Exitus Acta Probat, "The end justifies the means." Here we have a man whose noble life of self-sacrifice and true devotion to his country accomplished the "greatest end by the most justifiable means."
I am not, then, supposing the scientific investigator to be coming into collision with dogma; nor venturing, by means of his investigations, upon any interpretation of Scripture, or upon other conclusion in the matter of religion; nor of his teaching, even in his own science, religious parodoxes, when he should be investigating and proposing; nor of his recklessly scandalizing the weak; but, these explanations being made, I still say that a scientific speculator or inquirer is not bound, in conducting his researches, to be every moment adjusting his course by the maxims of the schools or by popular traditions, or by those of any other science distinct from his own, or to be ever narrowly watching what those external sciences have to say to him, or to be determined to be edifying, or to be ever answering heretics and unbelievers; being confident, from the impulse of a generous faith, that, however his line of investigation may swerve now and then, and vary to and fro in its course, or threaten momentary collision or embarrassment with any other department of knowledge, theological or not, yet, if he lets it alone, it will be sure to come home, because truth never can really be contrary to truth, and because often what at first sight is an “exceptio,” in the event most emphatically “probat regulam.”
"Vulgus interdum," says Cicero, "non probandum oratorem probat, sed probat sine comparatione, cùm
'Qua ex coniunctione naturae et quasi concentu atque consensu, quam συμπάθειαν Graeci appellant, convenire potest aut fissum iecoris cum lucello meo aut meus quaesticulus cum caelo, terra rerumque natura? asks the sceptic in the second of these passages. Vaticinatio probat fati necessitatem. The MS. is 574 Supplément grec de la Bibl. Nationale.
Victor: Nomen habes Coronati; Te tormenta decet pati Pro corona gloriae. Elsewhere the same illustrious hymnologist plays in like manner on the name of St. Vincentius: Qui vincentis habet nomen Ex re probat dignum omen Sui fore nominis; Vincens terra, vincens mari Quidquid potest irrogari Poenae vel formidinis. In the Bull for the canonization of Sta.
I have never known but one instance in which it seemed to fail, and that was the case of a wretched old man who held it in his hand a whole day in dead silence, without any apparent effect; but here exceptio probat regulam, for on further inquiry we found he could not read. So the tract was slowly administered to him by another person; and before it was finished, I protest to you, Mr.
Of course, in these "piping times of peace" the reader, in the quiet of his own room, will think that my suggestion was brutal, and without any palliation; my excuse, however, may be found in General Washington's own motto: Exitus acta probat. If the suggestion had been acted upon, many an innocent man and woman would have escaped torture, and many a maiden a captivity worse than death.
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