Thessalians on horseback were beheld afar off, while their horses watered, that is, while their heads were depressed, they were conceived by the first spectators to be but one animal; and answerable hereunto have their pictures been drawn ever since.

And, as simple mistakes commonly beget fallacies, so men rest not in false apprehensions, without absurd and inconsequent deductions; from fallacious foundations, and misapprehended mediums, erecting conclusions no way inferrible from their premises. Now the fallacies whereby men deceive others, and are deceived themselves, the ancients have divided into verbal and real. Of the verbal, and such as conclude from mistakes of the word, although there be no less than six, yet are there but two thereof worthy our notation, and unto which the rest may be referred; that is, the fallacy of equivocation and amphibology, which conclude from the ambiguity of some one word, or the ambiguous syntaxis of many put together. From this fallacy arose that calamitous error of the Jews, misapprehending the prophecies of their Messias, and expounding them always unto literal and temporal expectations. By this way many errors crept in, and perverted, the doctrine of Pythagoras, whilst men received his precepts in a different sense from his intention; converting metaphors into proprieties, and receiving as literal expressions obscure and involved truths. Thus when he enjoined his disciples an abstinence from beans, many conceived they were with severity debarred the use of that pulse, which, notwithstanding, could not be his meaning; for as Aristoxenus, who wrote his life, averreth, he delighted much in that kind of food himself. But herein, as Plutarch observeth, he had no other intention than to dissuade men from magistracy, or undertaking the publick offices of state: for by beans was the magistrate elected in some parts of Greece; and after his days, we read, in Thucydides, of the Council of the Bean in Athens. The same word also in Greek doth signify a testicle, and hath been thought by some, an injunction only of continency, as Aulus Gellius

7 converting metaphors into proprieties.] "Taking an expression or representation which only by simile applies to a subject, as if it had properly (or of propriety) belonged to it." Proprieties here implies literalities.

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hath expounded, and as Empedocles may also be interpreted, that is, testiculis miseri dextras subducite. And [this] might be the original intention of Pythagoras, as having a notable hint hereof in beans, from the natural signature of the venereal organs of both sexes. Again, his injunction is, not to harbour swallows in our houses; whose advice notwithstanding we do not contemn, who daily admit and cherish them. For herein a caution is only implied, not to entertain ungrateful and thankless persons, which like the swallow, are no way commodious unto us, but having made use of our habitations, and served their own turns, forsake us. So he commands to deface the print of a cauldron in the ashes, after it hath boiled; which strictly to observe, were condemnable superstition. But hereby he covertly adviseth us not to persevere in anger, but after our choler hath boiled, to retain no impression thereof. In the like sense are to be received, when he adviseth his disciples to give the right hand but to few, to put no viands in a chamber-pot, not to pass over a balance, not to take up fire with a sword, or piss against the sun. Which ænigmatical deliveries comprehend useful verities, but being mistaken by literal expositors at the first, they have been misunderstood by most since, and may be occasion of error to verbal capacities for ever.

This fallacy is the first delusion Satan put upon Eve, and his whole tentation might be the same continued.9 So when he said, "Ye shall not die," that was, in his equivocation, "ye shall not incur a present death," or a destruction immediately ensuing your transgression; "Your eyes shall be opened," that is, not to the enlargement of your knowledge, but discovery of your shame and proper confusion; "Ye shall know good and evil," that is, ye shall have knowledge of good by its privation, but cognizance of evil by sense and

* πᾶν δεῖλοι κυαμῶν ἀπὸ χεῖρας ἔχεσθε.

8 as having, &c.] See a curious paper on the ancient superstitions concerning beans and peas, in the Working Bee, iii. p. 11.—J.

9 the same continued.] The early editions read, "the same elench continued." Dean Wren remarks that elench is wrongly used here; meaning rather the detection of a sophistry than the sophistry itself. The author seems himself to have seen the error, and omitted the word.

visible experience. And the same fallacy or way of deceit, so well succeeding in Paradise, he continued in his oracles through all the world. Which had not men more warily understood, they might have performed many acts inconsistent with his intention. Brutus might have made haste with Tarquine to have kissed his own mother.' The Athenians might have built them wooden walls,2 or doubled the altar at Delphos.3

The circle of this fallacy is very large; and herein may be comprised all ironical mistakes, for intended expressions receiving inverted significations; all deductions from metaphors, parables, allegories, unto real and rigid interpretations. Whereby have risen, not only popular errors in philosophy, but vulgar and senseless heresies in divinity, as will be evident unto any that shall examine their foundations, as they stand related by Epiphanius,4 Austin, or Prateolus.5

Other ways there are of deceit; which consist not in false apprehension of words, that is, verbal expressions, or sentential significations, but fraudulent deductions, or inconsequent illations, from a false conception of things. Of these extra

Brutus might have made haste, &c.] Alluding to his interpretation of the Delphian reply to the Tarquinii; "Young men, whichever of you shall first kiss your mother, he shall possess the sovereign power at Rome." Brutus, who was present, fell to the ground, as if accidentally, and touched with his lips his mother, earth.

2 The Athenians, &c.] When the oracle advised them, on the approach of Xerxes, to take refuge within their wooden walls, which, by the advice of Themistocles, they understood to mean their fleet.

3

or doubled the altar at Delphos.] This refers to the demand of the Delian oracle, "to double his cubical altar," which gave occasion to a long series of geometrical inventions. See Gillies' Anc. Greece, part 2, vol. ii. p. 130, and the authorities he refers to.

4

Epiphanius, &c.] Epiphanius, contra octoginta Hæreses Panarium; Augustinus, De Hæresibus.

5 Gabriel Prateolus.] Vernacularly du Preau, was a voluminous French ecclesiastical writer of the 16th century. He was distinguished by the ardour ofhis zeal for the Roman catholic church, in opposition to those whom she has been pleased to stigmatize by the name of heretics. This spirit is manifested in all his works, but that to which Browne refers is doubtless the following: "De vitis, lectis, et dogmatibus, omnium hæreticorum, qui ab orbe condito, ad nostra usque tempora, et veterum et recentium monumentis proditi sunt, elenchus alphabeticus," &c.—Br.

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dictionary and real fallacies, Aristotle and logicians make in number six, but we observe that men are most commonly deceived by four thereof: those are, petitio principii; a dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter; a non causa pro causa; and, fallacia consequentis.

The first is, petitio principii. Which fallacy is committed when a question is made a medium, or we assume a medium as granted, whereof we remain as unsatisfied as of the question. Briefly, where that is assumed as a principle to prove another thing, which is not conceded as true itself.? By this fallacy was Eve deceived, when she took for granted, the false assertion of the Devil: "Ye shall not surely die; for God doth know, that in the day ye shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods." Which was but a bare affirmation of Satan, without any proof or probable inducement, contrary unto the command of God, and former belief of herself. And this was the logick of the Jews when they accused our Saviour unto Pilate; who demanding a reasonable impeachment, or the allegation of some crime worthy of condemnation, they only replied, "If he had not been worthy of death, we would not have brought him before thee." Wherein there was neither accusation of the person nor satisfaction of the judge, who well understood a bare accusation was no presumption of guilt, and the clamours of the people no accusation at all. The same fallacy is sometimes used in the dispute between Job and his friends, they often taking that for granted which afterwards he disproveth.

The second is, A dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter, when from that which is but true in a qualified sense, an inconditional and absolute verity is inferred; transferring the special consideration of things unto their general acceptions, or concluding from their strict acception unto that without all limitation. This fallacy men commit when they argue from a particular to a general; as when we conclude the vices or qualities of a few, upon a whole nation, or from a

6 extradictionary.] Johnson, citing the present passage, explains the word, "not relating to words but realities."

7 where that is assumed as a principle, &c.] More clearly, "where that which is not conceded as true itself, is assumed as a principle to prove another thing."

part unto the whole. Thus the Devil argued with our Saviour; and by this he would persuade him he might be secure if he cast himself from the pinnacle: "For," said he, "it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone." But this illation was fallacious, leaving out part of the text, (Psalm 91,)" He shall keep thee in all thy ways;" that is, in the ways of righteousness, and not of rash attempts: so he urged a part for the whole, and inferred more in the conclusion than was contained in the premises. By the same fallacy we proceed, when we conclude from the sign unto the thing signified. By this encroachment idolatry first crept in, men converting the symbolical use of idols into their proper worship, and receiving the representation of things as the substance and thing itself. So the statue of Belus, at first 'erected in his memory, was in aftertimes adored as a divinity. And so also in the sacrament of the Eucharist, the bread and wine which were but the signals or visible signs, were made the things signified, and worshipped as the body of Christ. And hereby generally men are deceived, that take things spoken in some latitude without any at all. Hereby the Jews were deceived concerning the commandment of the Sabbath, accusing our Saviour for healing the sick, and his disciples for plucking the ears of corn upon that day. And, by this deplorable mistake, they were deceived unto destruction, upon the assault of Pompey the Great, made upon that day;9 by whose superstitious observation they could not defend themselves, or perform any labour whatever.

The third is, A non causa pro causa, when that is pretended for a cause which is not, or not in that sense which is inferred. Upon this consequence the law of Mahomet

8 By this encroachment, &c.] The conversion of the "symbolical use" of such "idols" as consisted of natural objects or their representations "into their proper worship," is beautifully though concisely explained in Kirby and Spence's Introduction to Entomology, vol. iv. p. 401-403.—Br. 9 And by this deplorable mistake, &c.] The reader will find the particulars of this event recorded by Josephus, in his Antiquities of the Jews, book xiv. chap. 4, to which some pertinent illustrations from other parts of the Jewish history have been added by Whiston.-Br.