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"The captious turn of an habitual wrangler deadens the understanding, sours the temper, and hardens the heart: by rendering the mind suspicious, and attentive to trifles, it weakens the sagacity of instinct, and extinguishes the fire of imagination; it transforms conversation into, a state of warfare; and restrains those lively sallies of fancy, so effectual in promoting good-humour and good-will, which, though often erroneous, are a thousand times more valuable than the dull correctness of a mood-and-figure disciplinarian."

— Beattie, James (1735-1803)

Author

Beattie, James (1735-1803)

Work Title

An Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth; in Opposition to Sophistry and Scepticism

Place of Publication

Edinburgh

Publisher

Printed for A. Kincaid & J. Bell. Sold, at London, by E. & C. Dilly

Date

1770

Metaphor

"The captious turn of an habitual wrangler deadens the understanding, sours the temper, and hardens the heart: by rendering the mind suspicious, and attentive to trifles, it weakens the sagacity of instinct, and extinguishes the fire of imagination; it transforms conversation into, a state of warfare; and restrains those lively sallies of fancy, so effectual in promoting good-humour and good-will, which, though often erroneous, are a thousand times more valuable than the dull correctness of a mood-and-figure disciplinarian."

Metaphor in Context

The apparent tendency of the school-logic is, to render men disputatious and sceptical, adepts in the knowledge of words, but inattentive to fact and experience. It makes them fonder of speaking than thinking, and therefore strangers to themselves solicitous chiefly about rules, names, and distinctions, and therefore leaves them neither leisure nor inclination for the study of life and manners. In a word, it makes them more ambitious to distinguish themselves as the partisans of a dogmatist, than as inquirers after truth. It is easy to see how far a man of this turn of mind is qualified to make discoveries in knowledge. To such a man, indeed, the name of truth is only a pretence: he neither is, nor can be, much interested in the solidity or importance of his tenets; it is enough if he can render them plausible; nay, it is enough if he can silence his adversary by any means. The captious turn of an habitual wrangler deadens the understanding, sours the temper, and hardens the heart: by rendering the mind suspicious, and attentive to trifles, it weakens the sagacity of instinct, and extinguishes the fire of imagination; it transforms conversation into, a state of warfare; and restrains those lively sallies of fancy, so effectual in promoting good-humour and good-will, which, though often erroneous, are a thousand times more valuable than the dull correctness of a mood-and-figure disciplinarian.
(III, pp. 425-7)