Recent Discussions Concerning Liberal Education [pp. 585-616]

1867.] Liberat ~ducation. 615
educating the reasoning powers. But we want the room and
must content ourselves with an extract.
" Of Logic I venture to say, even if limited to that of mere
ratiocination, the theory of names, propositions, and the syllogism, that there is no part of intellectual education which is
of greater value, or whose place Can so ill be supplied by anything else. Its uses, it is true, are chiefly negative; its function is, not so much to teach us to go right, as to keep us from
going wrong. But in the operations of the intellect it is so
much easier to go wrong than right; it is so utterly impossible
for the most vigorous mind to keep itself in the path but by
maintaining a vigilant watch against all deviations, and noting all
the by.ways by which it is possible to go astray-that the chief
difference between one reasoner and another consists in their
less or greater liability to be misled. Logic points out all the
possible ways in which, starting from true premises, we may
draw false conclusions. By its analysis of the reasoning process, and the forms it supplies for stating and setting forth our
reasonings, it enables us to guard the points at which a fallacy
is in danger of s]ipping in, or to lay our fingers upon the place
where it has slipped in. When I consider how very simple the
theory of reasoning is, and how short a time is sufficient for
acquiring a thorough knowledge of its principles and rules, and
even considerable expertness in applying them, I can find no
excuse for omitting to study it on the part of any one who aspires
to success in any intellectual pursuit. Logic is the great disperser of hazy and confused thinking; it clears up the fogs
which hide from us our own ignorance, and make us believe
that we understand a subject when we do not... You will
find abundance of people to tell you that logic is no help to
thought, and that people cannot be taught to think by rules.
Undoubtedly rules by themselves, without practice, go but a little way in teaching anything. But if the practice of thinking is not improved by rules, I venture to say it is the only
difficult thing done by human beings that is not so. A man
learns to saw wood principally by practice, but there are rules
for doing it, grounded on the nature of the operation, and if he
is not taught the rules, he will not saw well until he has discovered them for himself.... To those who think lightly of