4. Misuse of words the great cause of errors.
For he that shall well consider the errors and obscurity, the mistakes
and confusion, that are spread in the world by an ill use of words, will find some reason to doubt whether
language, as it has been employed, has contributed more to the improvement or hindrance of knowledge amongst
mankind. How many are there, that, when they would think on things, fix their thoughts only on words, especially
when they would apply their minds to moral matters? And who then can wonder if the result of such
contemplations and reasonings, about little more than sounds, whilst the ideas they annex to them are very
confused and very unsteady, or perhaps none at all; who can wonder, I say, that such thoughts and reasonings end
in nothing but obscurity and mistake, without any clear judgment or knowledge?
