10 Aug 1811

Fallacies Ch | | Lawyer & Churchmen

Lawyer has no such hopes or fears to operate upon him, in [...?] weight and authority as the Churchman has

Impossible that it should be to [...?] the lawyer the[?] of the incognisibility &c [...?] proportion[?] as factitious the work

But Churchmen by their fear /in cases in which sincerity is out of the reach of dispute/ have been forced into a belong[?] of the pit[?] of proportion[?] which has long ago made the highest[?] point[?] on the scale of absurdity & extravagance viz the point ranked[?] by a contradiction of [...?]

There has already been occasion to bring to view the case of a middle or rather mixt state between that of evil consciousness and that of temerity - between that of improbity and that of weakness on the part of an /the/ utterer of these instruments of deception which may be characterized by the denomination /come under the denomination/ of political fallacies.

As between the lawyer and the Churchman /priest/ it may be matter of curiosity at least to observe /consider/ in what relative proportions those ingredients may naturally be expected to be found mixt in these respective bosoms.

The more thoroughly /closely/ the nature of their respective occupations and situations is considered, the more closely it will appear that as between the one state and the other in regard to any fallacy the disceptiveness of which is in its remaining unperceived by the utterer supposing then both pure on the probability of evil /the scale of probability/ consciousness is in the part of the man of laws at the highest, on the part of the churchman at the lowest pitch: or supposing as above, the acceptance and utterance of the fallacy in question to have for its cause a mixture of improbity and weakness, it is in the lawyers case that the rules of the improbity to the weakness will be at the highest point in the case of the Churchman at the lowest point of the scale,