How many are there, that, when they would think on
things, fix their thoughts only on words, especially when they would
apply their minds to moral matters? And who then can wonder if the
result of such contemplations and reasonings, about little more than
sounds, whilst the ideas they annex to them are very confused and very
unsteady, or perhaps none at all; who can wonder, I say, that such
thoughts and reasonings end in nothing but obscurity and mistake,
without any clear judgment or knowledge?
5. Has made men more conceited and obstinate. This inconvenience, in
an ill use of words, men suffer in their own private meditations:
but much more manifest are the disorders which follow from it, in
conversation, discourse, and arguings with others. For language
being the great conduit, whereby men convey their discoveries,
reasonings, and knowledge, from one to another, he that makes an ill
use of it, though he does not corrupt the fountains of knowledge,
which are in things themselves, yet he does, as much as in him lies,
break or stop the pipes whereby it is distributed to the public use
and advantage of mankind. He that uses words without any clear and
steady meaning, what does he but lead himself and others into
errors? And he that designedly does it, ought to be looked on as an
enemy to truth and knowledge.
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