But is it necessary to take up seriously such abuses of language? Why
not, when they are seriously paraded in newspapers and in books?
Do not imagine that they escape from writers who are ignorant of their
language; for one who abstains from them, we could point you to ten
who employ them, and they persons of consideration--that is to say,
men whose words are laws, and whose most shocking sophisms serve as
the basis of administration for the country.
A celebrated modern philosopher has added to the categories of
Aristotle, the sophism which consists in including in one word the
begging of the question. He cites several examples. He should have
added the word _tributary_ to his vocabulary. In effect the question
is, are purchases made abroad useful or injurious? "They are
injurious," you say. And why? "Because they make us _tributary_ to the
foreigner." Here is certainly a word which presents as a fact that
which is a question.
How is this abusive trope introduced into the rhetoric of monopolists?
Some specie _goes out of a country_ to satisfy the rapacity of a
victorious enemy--other specie, also, goes out of a country to settle
an account for merchandise.
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