PREJUDICES
NEVER adopt the notions of any books you may read, or of
any company you may keep, without examining whether they are just or not; as
you will otherwise be liable to be hurried away by prejudices, instead of being
guided by reason, and quietly cherish error, instead of seeking for truth.
Use and assert your own reason: reflect,
examine, and analyze everything, in order to form a sound and mature judgment:
let no ipse dixit impose upon your understanding, mislead your
actions, or dictate your conversation. Be early what, if you are not, you will,
when too late, wish you had been. Consult your reason betimes; I do not say
that it will always prove an unerring guide, for human reason is not
infallible; but it will prove the least erring guide that you can follow. Books
and conversation may assist it; but adopt neither blindly and implicitly: try
both by that best rule, which God has given to direct us,—reason. Of all the
troubles, do not decline, as many people do, that of thinking. The herd of
mankind can hardly be said to think; their notions are almost all adoptive:
and, in general, I believe it is better that it should be so; as such common
prejudices contribute more to order and quiet than their own separate
reasonings would do, uncultivated and unimproved as they are.
Local prejudices prevail only with the
herd of mankind, and do not impose upon cultivated, informed, and reflecting
minds; but then there are notions equally false, though not so glaringly
absurd, which are entertained by people of superior and improved
understandings, merely for want of the necessary pains to investigate, the
proper attention to examine, the penetration requisite to determine the truth.
Those are the prejudices which I would have you guard against by a manly
exertion and attention of your reasoning faculty.
No comments:
Post a Comment