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and touch on a hundred unconnected subjects , leaving her opponent ( if he be a rational person ) totally unable to follow her zigzag course , and looking as foolish as a mathematician in pursuit of a butterfly ? These inconsistencies may be thought only amusing , or , ^ at most , provoking : but they are more . A habit of inaccuracy in trifles ( supposing such discussions to be trifling ) soon extends to more important things , and he who utters carelessly
the ideas that come uppermost , will in time have nothing better to communicate ; and being content idly to watch the foam which dances on the waves , will become unable to dive for the treasures of the deep . The faculty which is bestowed to he his guide and guard amidst the mutable and conflicting influences which are to mould him to immortality , is not incorruptible , and will assuredly prove treacherous , if a careful watch is not kept
over her ndelity . Involuntary error is a calamity . Negligence of truth is more—it is a crime : and every indulgence in indolence and carelessness of thought is criminal , when we know ^ that such indulgence tends to limit our capacity for the reception of divine truth , and to deteriorate the noblest gift that God has conferred on man . When we shuffle away from an argument which we have . not courage to face , when we skim over a subject which we are too idle to examine , when we banish reflections which it is our duty to
entertain , we are doing worse than omitting a present duty—we are incapacitating ourselves for the charge of future responsibilities . We do not mean that every subject on which our reason can be employed should be thoroughly examined whenever it presents itself . Life would thus be spent in reasoning , and the moral faculties be sacrificed to the intellectual . What we mean is , that when we reason , it should be so as to form our minds to a habit of judging correctly ; that we should argue accurately or not at all ; and that where we are called on to decide instead of to reason , we
should , on no account , allow ourselves to impose on our own minds or those of others , by insufficient or fallacious arguments , whatever may be their number . We are also to consider the welfare of others , and remember what we owe to their improvement and their peace . If their minds are inferior to our own , we incur a heavy responsibility by helping to pervert and blind their reason . If they are our equals in mind and station , we run the risk of
originating disputes . If superior in mind , and beneath us in other respects , we inflict an injury by urging reasons which are perceived to be false , but which must not be questioned . A command , however unreasonable , is welcome in comparison . A lady wishing to be undisturbed , desires a sensible , conscientious servant to say that she is not at home if any one calls . The servant , left to himself , would say that his mistress is particularly engaged :
but the lady , aware of what may be passing in the mind of the domestic , condescends to give various reasons why there is no harm in the practice ^ her conscience all the while condemns , wh y every body does it , and is fi g ^ t to do it , how it is no lie , because every bod y understands the hidden meaning of the phrase , and so on . The servant would reply if he dared , * ' Wh ^ , then , all this talk ? If every body understands that you are engaged iat home , why not say so ? " But he must hold his tongue , or argue with his
mistress , and be silenced . We pity his feelings . The case is worse in families where the parents have more taste for power than for right reason . Their children are intelligent and conscientious . They are strongly recommended to do something which they do not altogether approve , but they thifrk it will occasion less harm to comply than to resist , or even object . It is easy to obey a simple command , or observe
Untitled Article
Essays od the Art of Thinking : 525
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1829, page 525, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2575/page/5/
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