1820 Feb. 29

Defence of Brad.[?] ag st Ed. Review

§. Paradoxes. 1. Tumult

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1. Tumult a bad and an indictable offence as per Bill against Wolselyke[?]

§. The Reviewer’s paradoxes. 1. Tumult, in Elections a thing useful and laudable.

To employ paradoxes, whether in lieu or in support of argument is playing a high game. It marks distress upon the very face of it, it marks distress, and thereby on the part of the employers betrays if not a consciousness of the badness of his cause /his cause being a bad one/ at any rate /at the least/ an apprehension of its appearing so in the eyes of others /in other eyes/. It is thus an experiment not unattended with danger to the cause itself: no, not /nor yet/ altogether free from danger to the literary reputation of the author himself. {The higher that reputation the higher the stake thus ventured.} A paradox is an opinion to which the general opinion is opposite and not simply so but in a very high degree opposite: to /he who/ utter a paradox is therefore to set a man’s own opinion against the opinion of mankind in general, and in particular all that part to whose cognizance the controversy is expected to present itself: it is to expect that such is the force /influence/ of his authority, those before whom what he says is expected to come will /are/ upon the same ground of his authority, be ready /prepared/ to make surrender of their own reason. The higher his reputation the higher will be his authority, and the stronger the force with which at the suggestion of hope[?] it may be expected to operate against opposing reason. But the higher his /the/ reputation the greater in case of failure must be the fall: the more flagrant the paradox so employed, the deeper therefore is the game played by those /him/ who employ it