30 Aug. 1812

Evidence Introd

Introd

Ch. 15. Preappointed

Obstacles.

Law Offices

The object has been to raise up /erect/ an impenetrable fortress within which the work of profitable mischief might be carried on wih /in/ security. With the admixture of useful sense in the smallest generality this would serve for giving colour to the whole mass, - folly, nonsense, and lies were the materials and the instruments employed in the creation of it of these, under the name of fictions the principal source was rendered by lies: each lie having effected the particular object, got in the money or power for which it was officialy employed, served afterwards in the character of nonsense, to thicken the walls of the edifice and render it more and more impenetrable to every untrained eye.

In this way, while the mass of discourse of which the sort of rule of rule of [...?] thus estimated, was rendered more and more unfit for every generally useful purpose, more and more condusive to the private and sinister purpose of its authors, not onlyof power and profit, but reputation likewise. To any public and honest purpose it could not be useful any further than it was understood; to the purpose of the authors such was their felicity, it became useful in jproportion as it was incapable of being understood. To be in the most perfect manner subservient to its public purpose, it would by every body be understood without effort and constantly returned and borne in mind. But in that case, being upon the footing of common conversation, it could not have been the subject matter of any thing that is called science.