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Untitled Article
sary , and also whether any irrelevant ideas are introduced . The more simple the statement can be made , the more easy is the approach to the truth . If engaged in meditation on a question proposed by ourselves , we should be careful not only to think in words , but to vary the statement of the proposition , by transposing the parts and changing the terms , if equivalent modes
of expression can be found . If conducting an argument in conversation , it is absolutely necessary to ascertain that both disputants understand the meaning of the terms employed by each . It is irritating and humbling to the mind to ascertain , on arriving at some false conclusion , that the truth has been missed through the imperfection of the instrument employed to obtain it ; but few misfortunes are more common , as the experience of every young logician can attest *
Frequent exercise in composition is a most important assistance in forming habits of accurate thought . Continually as this fact is insisted on in all works of education , and decisive as is the testimony of experience respecting it , it is strange that the practice is not more universally and extensively adopted by those who desire their own improvement . If this exercise were wisely adopted and perseveringly pursued , the best ends of intellectual
education would be answered by its means alone . The act of composition teaches , in the first place , to state accurately , and in the next , to think accurately . Other numerous and important advantages arise from the practice ; but the two we have mentioned are the most closely connected with the objects of this Essay . The student should begin the exercise of composition by writing down the ideas of others ; for instance , a recollection of a lecture , or a conversation , or , better still , a passage from a book , with which he can
compare his statement . When enabled by practice to state the ideas or others with precision , he should frequently exercise himself in original composition , on a variety of subjects . Though the time thus employed be considerable , not an hour of it is wasted ; and if the labour be found irksome , there can be no stronger proof that it is needed . If due care be taken to vary the subjects and form of composition , all the knowledge previously
acquired will be secured , and converted to its proper uses ; and every faculty of the mind will be disciplined to a more and more faithful discharge of its office , and an ever-increasing capacity of improvement . If , however , the subjects he not sufficiently varied , the best advantages of the practice will be lost . If the imaginative write nothing but poetry , the indolent nothing but matter of fact , the sentimentalist nothing but sentiment , ease and fluency may be gained , but that bias of opinion and feeling which is unfavourable to intellectual health will be continually increasing . The truth that whatever is
clearly understood may be clearly expressed , is by no means inconsistent with our experience of the imperfection of language , since a comparison of two or more terms will convey an idea which no single one is adequate to express . If this truth had always been acted upon , or was now universally adopted , many errors would have been stifled in the birth , or would be presently exploded . How powerfully the practice of composition assists to establish a practical conviction of this useful truth , those can attest who have tried the experiment .
Some of the best advantages of this and of all the other methods of improvement which we have suggested may be secured by Conversation , if well conducted . Not only may truth be gradually drawn out by argument , and substantiated by a laborious application of facts , but by means of the intellectual excitements and moral influences which are brought into play in conversation , the circulation of intellectual wealth is iadefinitely accelerated ,
Untitled Article
756 Essays on the Art of Thinking .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1829, page 756, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2578/page/12/
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