[CHAPTER XI.]
THE FALLACIES IN WORDS.
Gardons-nous de l’équivoque!—Paul Louis Courier.
Words are grown so false, I am loathe to prove reason with them.—Shakespeare.
The mixture of those things by speech, which by nature are divided, is the mother of all error.—Hooker.
One vague inflection spoils the whole with doubt;
One trivial letter ruins all, left out;
A knot can choke a felon into clay;
A knot will save him, spelt without the k;
The smallest word has some unguarded spot,