8 Aug. 1815

Jug. True

Miracles

Wisdom &c shifting sense

Mode of treating exact

(7) (3)

Admirably convenient—not only to the purpose of vengeance but to the purpose of advantage in argument to the purpose of protecting and saving from exposure the grossest absurdity that can be imagined—aye and that with a degree of facility rising in the direct proportion (of the grossness) of the grossness of that absurdity—are these applications of the question-begging principle. Revering constant and unintermetting reverence is the affection the manifestations of which are to be the constant concomitants of every observation of which it is made the subject. But with any such manifestation supposing absurdity in any shape to be attached to the portion of discourse in question, the expression of which absurdity is not consistent: therefore no such exposure ought to be made: it is forbidden on pain of punishment as for blasphemy.

Moreover the grosser the absurdity, the more highly and flagrantly inconsistent with all reverence and with all manifestations of reverence is the display and exposure of it: therefore the grosser the absurdity, the more effectually it is by this argument protected against exposure.