FALLACIES OF CONFUSION. 445 



formed, but theory of some sort is the necessary 

 result of knowing anything of a subject, and having 

 put one's knowledge into the form of general proposi- 

 tions for the guidance of practice. In another and 

 more vulgar sense, theory means any mere fiction of 

 the imagination, endeavouring to conceive how a 

 thing may possibly have been produced, instead of 

 examining how it was produced. In this sense only 

 are theory, and theorists, unsafe guides; but because 

 of this, ridicule or discredit is attempted to be attached 

 to theory in its proper sense, that is, to legitimate 

 generalization, the end and aim of all philosophy; and 

 a conclusion is represented as worthless, just because 

 that has been done, which if done correctly constitutes 

 the highest worth that a principle for the guidance of 

 practice can possess, namely, to comprehend in a few 

 words the real law on which a phenomenon depends, 

 or some property or relation which is universally true 

 of it. 



" The Church" is sometimes understood to mean 

 the clergy alone, sometimes the whole body of be- 

 lievers, or at least of communicants. The declamations 

 respecting the inviolability of church property are 

 indebted for the greater part of their apparent force 

 to this ambiguity. The clergy, being called the 

 church, are supposed to be the real owners of what is 

 called church property ; whereas they are in truth 

 only the managing members of a much larger body 

 of proprietors, and enjoy on their own part a mere 

 usufruct, not extending beyond a life interest. 



The following is a favourite argument of Plato. 

 No one desires evil, knowing it to be so: to do wrong 

 is evil; therefore no one desires to do wrong knowing 

 that which he desires, but only in consequence of 

 ignorance. In this syllogism the ambiguous word is 



