A Logic of Facts; Or, Every-day ReasoningHolyoake, George Jacob
Philosophy
A Logic of Facts; Or, Every-day Reasoning
Holyoake, George Jacob
Logic
Many of the arts and sciences, which formerly resided exclusively in the
colleges, and ministered only to the sons of opulence and leisure,
have escaped from their retreat, and have become the hand-maids of the
populace. But as respects logic, there still remains between the learned
and the illiterate an impassable gulf. The uninformed look on the
recondite structure of logic, and they are repelled by the difficulty
of comprehending it, and wrap themselves up in absolute and obstinate
ignorance, which they believe to be their destiny. The populace, in our
manufactories, have to choose between subsistence and intelligence. For
study, after protracted toil, they have not the strength--and to abridge
their labour is to abridge their subsistence, and this they cannot
afford. But because they are precluded by the destiny of civilisation
from knowing much, they need not remain utterly unskilled in reasoning.
Their natural good sense may be systematized, their natural logic may be
reduced to some rule and order--though it may not be refined it may be
practical, it may give power, and develop capacity now dormant.
The hints, general rules, and elementary remarks dispersed throughout
this work, will probably be of service to the uninitiated, perhaps put
them on the road to higher acquirements, give them a confidence in their
own powers, perhaps inspire them with a love of these essential studies,
and impart a taste for the refinements which lie beyond. My hope is that
many will be induced to consult scholastic treatises, and acquire
that accurate knowledge which makes the society of educated people so
interesting. Impulse has been given to knowledge, and the populace have
begun to think, and both to speak and write their thinkings--and why
should they not be enabled to do it free from obvious mistakes, and with
a broad propriety commensurate with the native capacity they possess?
Why should they, like a certain learned politician on a public
occasion, propose, as a sentiment, 'The three R's, Reading, 'Riting, and
'Rithmetic?'* Why, in writing, should they not express themselves with
strong grammatical coherence, and a certain bold perspicuity, if not
able to reach refinement and elegance? Why, in pronunciation, should
they not speak with a certain manly openness of vowel sound and a
distinct articulation, if not with all elocutionary modulation? Why
should not their discourse be expressed in brief, clear sentences? If
their punctuation went no farther than placing capital letters at
the commencement of sentences and of proper names, and periods at
the conclusion of sentences, it would render their writings more
intelligible than are half the communications they now send to the
press. If they mastered only brevity and abrupt directness, and learned
to omit tedious prolixity, they would command a hearing in many cases
where now they are denied one. If in logic they made a shrewd mastery
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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