FALLACIES OF RATIOCINATION. 439 



It is a principle of political economy that prices, 

 profits, wages, &c. " always find their level;" but this 

 is often interpreted as if it meant that they are 

 always, or generally, at their level; while the truth is, 

 as Coleridge epigrammatically expresses it, that they 

 are always finding their level, " which might be taken 

 as a paraphrase or ironical definition of a storm." 



Under the same head of fallacy (a dicto secundum 

 quid ad dictum simpliciter) might be placed all the 

 errors which are vulgarly called misapplications of 

 abstract truths: that is, where a principle, true (as 

 the common expression is) in the abstract, that is, all 

 modifying causes being supposed absent, is reasoned 

 upon as if it were true absolutely, and no modifying 

 circumstances could ever by possibility exist. This 

 very common form of error it is not requisite that we 

 should exemplify here, as it will be particularly treated 

 of hereafter in its application to the subjects on which 

 it is most frequent and most fatal, those of politics 

 and society. 



