LIB. I. 57-59. 35 



placitis est cautio, ut intellectus servetur aequus et 

 purus. 



LIX. 



At idola fori 78 omnium molestissima sunt ; qua? ex 

 foedere verborum et nominum se insiuuarunt in intel- 

 lectum. Credunt enim homines, rationem suam verbis 

 imperare. Sed fit etiam ut verba vim suam super in- 

 tellectum retorqueant et reflectant ; quod pbilosophiam 

 et scientias redclidit sophisticas et inactivas. Verba 

 autem plerunque ex captu vulgi induntur, atque per 

 lineas, vulgari intellectui maxirne conspicuas, res se 

 cant 9 . Quum autem intellectus acutior, aut observa- 

 tio diligentior, eas lineas transferre velit, ut illae sint 

 magis secundum naturam ; verba obstrepunt 80 . Unde 

 fit, ut magnoc et solennes disputationes hominum docto- 

 rum saepe in controversias circa verba et nomina desi- 

 nant ; a quibus (ex more et prudentia mathematico- 

 rum) incipere consultius foret, casque per definitiones 

 in ordinem redigere. Qua3 tamen definitiones, in natu- 



76 In the Encycl. Brit. vol. I. most people &quot; Sunrise&quot; and &quot; Sun- 



p. 34. Dugald Stewart says that set&quot; seem correct enough, 

 this Aphorism may be considered as 79 To these &quot; lineee&quot; Aristotle 



the Text of by far the most valu- appeals, when he uses the argument 



able part of Locke s Essay that of language and derivations in his 



which relates to the imperfections Moral Treatises, and there he is 



and abuse of words. He also refers proxiinately right ; for there the 



the reader to Memoirs by M.Prevost ordinary moral sense of man im- 



and M. Degerando on &quot; Signs con- presses itself on language, and it 



sidered in their connextion with the is fair to treat words as o-^fui of 



Intellectual Operations :&quot; (cf. also things. But in Physics it is not so ; 



supra, I. 44.) See Locke on the and the &quot; linese&quot; are made more for 



Human Understanding,Bk.iii.ch.io. distinctness and convenience than 



The fetters of language are one of for Truth. In Bacon s days too 



the penalties of social life, and of these lines were rendered doubly 



our dimness of knowledge. People clear and untrue by the dialectical 



stick to an unsuitable word, as they system of looking at things. 

 do to a foolish article of dress, from 80 &quot; Verba obstrepunt,&quot; AVords 



mere custom ; and the multitude, protest. This is the difficulty of a 



who do not think, are content with new nomenclature in an old Science, 



the faulty conceptions ; so (e. g.) to In a new subject it makes no matter. 



D 2 



