Sunday, May 31, 2009

Purpose, 1776 edition

To do something to instruct, but more to undeceive, the timid and admiring student:--to excite him to place more confidence in his own strength, and less in the infallibility of great names:--to help him to emancipate his judgment from the shackles of authority:--to let him see that the not understanding a discourse may as well be the writer's fault as the reader's:--to teach him to distinguish between shewy language and sound sense:--to warn him not to pay himself with words:--to shew him that what may tickle the ear, or dazzle the imagination, will not always inform the judgment...

--From A Fragment on Government--

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