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"I have heard and seen much of cockney impudence before now, but never expected to
hear a coxcomb ask two hundred guineas for flinging a pot of paint in the public's face."
The emotional tone of the words "cockney", "coxcomb" and "flinging a pot of
paint" is very strong; and the passage is utterly unworthy of that master of good English,
and champion of a good art, John Ruskin.
Let us not lose the power to speak, write, and think with plain words. All genuine
feeling demands adequate expression, but even genuine feeling is neither proof nor
evidence. The words "I feel" often introduce serious error:--
"When we catch ourselves thinking in emotional phraseology, let us form the habit of
translating our thoughts into emotionally neutral words."
Look at the following list of words, both having much the same meaning when
reduced to cold fact, but likely to have very different effects upon the mind of the
ordinary reader unless he be prepared:--
"The spirit of our troops."
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"The mentality of the enemy."
"Their unquenchable heroism."
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"Their ponderous foolhardiness."
"Summary execution."
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"Base assassination."
"Wise severity."
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"Atrocity."
"This fluent and forcible speech."
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"This rhodomontade of extremists."
"These practical proposals."
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"This suggested panacea.'
(2) A sophistical formula.--A fairly common way of avoiding or ignoring a sound
refutation of an extreme position is to say that "the exception proves the rule". How
often has valuable evidence been disposed of by a solemn quotation of this equivocal
formula. Yet, if we thought for a moment about it, we could hardly fail to realize the
falsity of the whole argument. If there be an exception, then the rule ceases to be
universal. We have been misled in allowing ourselves to be persuaded that the verb "to
prove" necessarily means "to prove true". It does not necessarily mean that; and in this
case it means "to test", whether the statement under consideration be true or false. If
there be an exception, that exception proves the rule to be false.
(3) The power of suggestion.--It is a "psychological fact that if statements are made
again and again in a confident manner, without argument or proof, the hearers will tend
to believe them, quite independently of their soundness, and of the presence or absence of
evidence for their truth".
If any reader doubts the power of "repeated affirmation", let him think of the great
business houses who spend thousands of pounds annually in placarding the country with
advertisements; or of the practice, in "faith-healing" campaigns, of getting the assembly
to sing the same choruses until they are all rocking to and fro and emotionally plastic.
We earnestly plead with any who are responsible for meetings resolutely to forbid this
unhealthy practice.