13. Two means of evading probabilities: I. Supposed fallacy latent in the words employed.
First, That the
arguments being (as for the most part they are) brought in words, there may be a fallacy latent in them: and the
consequences being, perhaps, many in train, they may be some of them incoherent. There are very few discourses
so short, clear, and consistent, to which most men may not, with satisfaction enough to themselves, raise this
doubt; and from whose conviction they may not, without reproach of disingenuity or unreasonableness, set
themselves free with the old reply, Non persuadebis, etiamsi persuaseris; though I cannot answer, I will not yield.
