THE

CALCUTTA MAGAZINE.

No. XIV. FEBRUARY, 1831.

Contents.

ORIGINAL PAPERS.

Fallacies in the Book of Fallacies,.....

Lines occasioned by an attempt to write a Lady's name on a Marble

Page.

71

To the Moon, by Dr. Bowring,..

The Painter Puzzled, by Thos. Hood, Esq.,.....

Avondale, by Henry Brandreth, Junior, Esq., .

BENGAL GENERAL REGISTER.

83

88

89

114

115

116

120

121

122

FALLACIES IN THE BOOK OF FALLACIES.

Page 45." He who in a question concerning the propriety of any law or established practice refers to authority as decisive of the question, assumes the truth of one or other of two positions: viz. that the principle of utility, i. e. that the greatest happiness of the greatest number, is not, at the time in question the proper standard for judging of the merits of the question; or that the practice of other and former times, or the opinions of other persons, ought to be regarded, in all cases as conclusive evidence of the nature and tendency of the practice: conclusive evidence superseding the necessity and propriety of any recourse to reason or present experience.

"In the first case, being really an enemy to the community that he should be esteemed, as such by all to whom the happiness of the community is an object of regard is no more than reasonable, no more than what, if men acted consistently, would uniformly take place.

"In the other case, what he does, is virtually to acknowledge himself not to possess any powers of reasoning which he himself can venture to think it safe to trust to: incapable of forming for himself any judgment by which he looks upon it as safe to be determined, he betakes himself for safety to some other man or set of men, of whom he knows little or nothing, except that they lived so many years ago; that the period of their existence was by so much anterior, and consequently possessing for its guidance so much the less experience."

The most prominent fallacy in the above passage is the assumption that the advocates of the present order of things in church and state, or the opponents of reform, refer to authority as decisive of the question. If they did so, equally decisive authority could be quoted against them, and by resort to such reasoning both parties would be equally in the wrong. But reference is made to authority, not as conclusive, but in support and illustration of a long train of reasoning; and the supposed authority is not a mere ipse dixit, but the testimony, both as to facts and opinions, of a man of great experience, eminent talents, and undoubted integrity. It is for such qualities, and not because he lived " so many years ago," as thousands of foolish and wicked men have done, that his authority is valuable, and granting that the institution in question was in his days younger and less sanctioned by experience, it is now older, carrying with it the weight of so many more opinions, and the evidence of so