I wish there were no Reason to think that there are some who attempt to maintain an Opinion which they know to be false, or at least which they have cause to suspect, and therefore industriously avoid what wou’d manifest their Error. ’Tis hop’d however that the greatest part of the Disputers of the World are not of this number, and that the reason why they offer their Neighbours Sophistical Arguments, is because they are not aware of it themselves; That what makes them so Positive is their firm persuasion that they are acted only by a Zeal for GOD, an honest Constancy and Stanch Integrity, tho at the very same time quite different Motives move them under these Appearances.
And indeed he must be an extraordinary good Man, a Wonder scarce produc’d in an Age, who has no Irregular Passion stirring; Who receives no Manner of Tincture from Pride and Vitious Self-Love, to which all are so prone, and which hide themselves under so many disguises; Who is got above the World its Terrors and Allurements, has laid up his Treasure in Heaven, and is fully Contented with his Present Circumstances, let them be what they will, having made them the boundaries of his Desires; who knows how to live on a Little very happily and therefore receives no Bias from his own Conveniency, nor is weigh’d down by the dead Weight of his Appetites and Interests; which ought to be the Temper of every Person who wou’d find out Truth, and who desires to make a Right Judgment in all things.
We all pretend to this it’s true, and think our selves Injur’d if it be not believ’d that we are Disinteress’d and free from Passion, that no Humour or Private End, nothing but an honest Zeal for Truth gives warmth to our Discourses; and yet it often happens that e’re we Conclude them, we give just occasion to have it thought, that how large soever our Knowlege in other things may be, we are not well acquainted with our own Hearts. All which consider’d, how confidently soever we’re perswaded of our own Integrity, tho we think we have penetrated to the very bottom of our Hearts, it wou’d not be amiss to suspect our selves sometimes, and to fear a Bias, even at the very instant we take care to avoid one.
For Truth being but One, and the Rational Faculties not differing in Kind but in Degree, tho there may be different Measures of Understanding, there could not be such Contradictions in Mens Opinions as we find there are, even in those who examin as well as in those who do not, were they acted only by the Love of Truth, and did not Self-Love perswade them that they shall find their own particular account by such an Opposition. I wou’d not be so understood as if I thought that in all Controversies one side must needs be Criminal, if not by Wilfully Opposing Truth, yet at least by an indulgence of such unmortifi’d Passions as estrange them from her. No, without doubt great allowances are to be made on the score of Education, Capacity, the Leisure, and Opportunity of Information we have had. But this we may venture to say, that had we but a Modest Opinion of our selves, believing it as possible for us as for those who contradict us to be mistaken, did we behave our selves answerable to such a belief; were we seriously convinc’d that nothing is so much our Interest as a readiness to admit of Truth, from what ever Hand it comes, greatest part of our Disputes wou’d have a better Issue than we generally find. At least if we cou’d not be to happy as to Convince one another, our Contests wou’d be manag’d with more Temper and Moderation, wou’d not conclude in such a breach of Charity, or at best in such a Coldness for each other, as they usually do.
If we consider wisely we shall find it to be our Present Interest as well as our Future, to do that in Reality which all of us Pretend to, that is, to Search after and to Follow Truth. And to do it with all that Candor and Ingenuity which becomes a true Philosopher as well as a good Christian, making use of no Arguments but what we really believe, and giving them up contentedly when we meet with stronger. Our Present Interest, which is that which weighs most with the generality, and to which we make all other considerations give place; For what is it we Contend for? They who have such little Souls as to bait at any thing beneath the highest End, make Reputation their Aim, and with it that Authority and Wealth which usually attends it. But now Reputation cannot be acquir’d, at least not a lasting one, by Fallacious Reasonings; we may perhaps for a while get a Name by them amongst unwary Persons, but the World grows too quick-sighted to be long impos’d on. If a Love of Truth do not, yet Envy and Emulation will set other heads a Work to discover our Ignorance or Fraud, they are upon the same Design, and will not suffer us to go away with the Prize undeservedly. And besides, with how ill an Aspect must he needs appear who does not Reason fairly, and by consequence, how unlike is he to gain on those who hear him? There are but three Causes to which false Arguments can be refer’d, Ignorance, Rashness, or Design, and the being suspected for any one of these hinders us very much in acquiring that Reputation, Authority or Preferment we desire. I must confess were we sure the Fallacy wou’d not be detected, and that we shou’d not lie under Suspicion of it, we might gain our point; for provided the Paint do not rub off, good Colouring may serve a present turn as well as a true Complection: But there is little reason to hope for this, because of what was just now mention’d, and for other Reasons that might be added.
Now what can be more provoking than the Idea we have of a Designing Person? of one who thinks his own Intellectuals so strong and ours so weak, that he can make us swallow any thing, and lead us where he pleases? such an one seems to have an Intention to reduce us to the vilest Slavery, the Captivation of our Understandings, which we justly reckon to be the highest Insolence. And since every one puts in for a share of Sense, and thinks he has no reason to complain of the distribution of it, whoever supposes that another has an over-weaning Opinion of his own, must needs think that he undervalues his Neighbours Understanding, and will certainly repay him in his own Coin, and deny him those advantages he seems to arrogate.
The most we can say for our selves when the weakness of our Arguments comes to be discover’d, is that we were mistaken thro Rashness or Ignorance, which tho more pardonable than the former, are no recommending Qualities. If we argue falsly and know not that we do so, we shall be more pittied than when we do, but either way disappointed. And if we have added Rash Censures of those who are not of our Mind, Pride or Positiveness to our Errors as we cannot so handsomely Retreat so neither will so fair a Quarter be allow’d as those who Argue with Meekness, Modesty and Charity may well expect. So that when we have cast up our Account and estimated the Present Advantages that false Arguings bring us, I fear what we have got by a Pretence to Truth, won’t be found to countervail the loss we shall sustain by the Discovery that it was no more. Which may induce us (if other Considerations will not) to be wary in receiving any Proposition ourselves; and restrain us from being forward to impose our Sentiments on others.
After all, ’tis a melancholy reflection that a great part of Mankind stand in need of Arguments drawn from so low a Motive as Worldly Interest, to persuade them to that to which they have much greater inducements. It is strange that we shou’d need any other considerations besides the bare performance of our Duty, and those unspeakable advantages laid up for all such as do it sincerely, hereafter. When we have the Approbation of GOD and the infinite Rewards he has propos’d to those who study to recommend themselves to him, for our Encouragement, how low are we sunk if the Applause of Men and the little Trifles which they can bestow weigh any thing with us! I am therefore almost asham’d of proposing so mean a consideration, but the degeneracy of the Age requir’d it, and they who perhaps at first follow Truth as the Jews did once, for the Loaves only, may at last be attracted by its own Native Beauties.
L’art de Penser, p. 22.
§. V. As Nature teaches us Logic, so does it instruct us in Rhetoric much better than Rules of Art, which if they are good ones are nothing else but those Judicious Observations which Men of Sense have drawn from Nature, and which all who reflect on the Operations of their own Minds will find out ’emselves. The common Precepts of Rhetoric may teach us how to reduce Ingenious ways of speaking to a certain Rule, but they do not teach us how to Invent them, this is Natures work and she does it best; there is as much difference between Natural and Artificial Eloquence as there is between Paint and True Beauty. So that as a good Author well observes, all that’s useful in this Art, “is the avoiding certain evil ways of Writing and Speaking, and above all an Artificial and Rhetorical Stile compos’d of false Thoughts, Hyperboles and forc’d Figures which is the greatest fault in Rhetoric.”