People often recommend us to think for ourselves only as a means of distinguishing between the errors of others in our pursuit of truth. They look upon it as a mere expedient ; but is that all it is? How much unnecessary reading does it not save us! Is reading the same as study? It has been stated with much truth and reason that while printing did, indeed, make learning more general, it at the same time diminished its content. Excessive reading is bad for thinking. The most distinguished thinkers I have ever met have been just those of my learned acquaintance who have read the least.
When people come to be taught how they should think, instead of eternally what they should think, misunderstanding will be avoided. This is a kind of initiation into the mysteries of humanity. The man who in thinking for himself stumbles upon some dubious principle will manage well enough to get clear of it again, if it is erroneous. A dubious principle on the other hand, taught by a man of repute, may lead thousands astray who don’t examine it. We cannot be careful enough in making public our personal opinions on life and happiness, nor industrious enough in encouraging a sceptical spirit and common sense. As Bolingbroke very happily says :—Every man’s reason is every man’s oracle.
In subjects where no thorough knowledge is possible man becomes sophistical and overwise ; and therefore everybody is so when it is a question of immortality and the life hereafter. All of us are
