498 iOGic: OR, THE RIGHT 05E OF REASON. determine with assurance, what are the inward springs and secret causes of every man's conduct ; and therefore we should be cautious and slow in passing a judgment where the case is not exceeding evident : and if we. should mistake, let it rather be on the charitable, than on the censorious side. It is the same sophism that charges mathematical learning with leading the minds of men to scepticism and infidelity, and as unjustly accuses the new philosophy of paving the way to heresy and schism. Thus the reformation from Popery has been charged with the murder and blood of millions, which in truth is to be imputed to the tyranny of the princes and the priests, who would not suffer the people to reform their sentiments and their. practices according to the ward of God. Thus Christianity in the primitive ages was charged by the heathens with all the calamities which befel the Roman Empire, because the Christi- ans renounced the heathen gods and idols. The way to relieve ourselves from those sophisms, and to . secure ourselves from the danger of falling into them is an ho- nest and diligent enquiry into the real nature and causes of things, with a constant ,watchfulness against all those prejudices that might warp the judgment aside from truth in that enquiry. V. The next is called fallacia- accidentis, or a sophism wherein we pronounce concerning the nature and essential pro- perties of any subject according to something which is merely accidental to it. This is a-kin to the former, and is also very frequent in human life. So if Opium or the Peruvian bark has been used imprudently or unsuccessfully, whereby the patient has received injury, some weaker people absolutely pronounce against the use of the bark or opium upon all occasions whatso- ever, and are ready to call them poison. So wine has been the accidental occasion of drunkenness and quarrels ; learning and printing may have .been the accidental cause of sedition in a state the reading of the bible, by accident, has been abused to pro- mote heresies or destructive errors ; and for these reasons they have. all been pronounced evil things. Mahomet forbade his fol- lowers the use of itiine; the Turks discourage learning in their dominion; and the Papists forbid the scripture to be read by the Laity. But how very unreasonable are these inferences, and these prohibitions which are built upon them! VI. The next sophism borders Upon the former ; and that is, when we argue from that which is true in particular circumstan- ces, to prove the same thing true absolutely, simply, and ab- stracted, from all circumstances ; this is called in the schools a sophism, a dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter.: as, That which is bought in the shambles is eaten for dinner ; raw meat is bought in the shambles; therefore raw meat is eaten for dinner. Or thus, Livy writes fables and improbabilities, when he describes
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