"The principle you advanced, Mr. Jones, a short time since, on geology
seems to be altogether gratuitous, and can only be received for what it
is worth."
"Gratuitous, indeed! Gratuitous! You affirm it to be gratuitous, do you?
I should like to know what right you have to say it is gratuitous?
Haven't I said it is so? and do you mean to insult me by saying it is
only gratuitous?" roared out Jones.
"I do not mean to insult at all; but I was not prepared to receive it,
as it is antagonistic to the views of the most eminent geologists of the
present day," replied Mr. Manly, rather coolly.
"What is that to me? My views are my own. I have found them myself. I
hold them sacred. I care not who they contradict. I believe they are
right. I affirm them so to you, and you should not dispute them."
* * * * *
It is thus the dogmatist stands upon his self-confidence and
presumption, his fancied superiority of knowledge and learning. He
virtually ignores everybody else's right to think and to know. He flings
denunciation at the man who dares contradict him. He is his own standard
of wisdom, and erects himself as the standard for other people. "To the
law and the testimony," as they are embodied in him; and if there is not
conformity to these, it is because there is no light in you.
Sometimes the dogmatist seems to rule supreme in the company of which he
forms a part. But his rule is not acquired by the force of logic or the
convincing power of truth. It is assumed or usurped. It may be that some
are too modest to contradict him, or others may not have sufficient
intelligence, or others may not think it worth their while, or others
may have wisdom to perceive his folly, and answer him accordingly. Hence
he may imagine himself triumphant when no one disputes the field with
him. He may think he reigns supreme in the circle, when, in fact, he
reigns only over his own opinions, or rather is a slave to their
despotic power.
The dogmatist is far from having influence with the wise and
intelligent. Among the timid and ignorant he may rule in undisputed
power; but to men of reason and thought he is repulsive. He is kept at
arm's length as a piece of humanity whose "room is better than his
person." In these days of free thought and free speech, who will submit
to be hectored out of his right to think, and to speak as he thinks, by
one who has nothing but his own dictatorial self-conceit to show as his
authority, perhaps backed with a pretentious influence coming from a
subordinate official position that he holds in Church or State?
Even when the dogmatist possesses that amount of intelligence and
position which legitimately place him above most of the company into
which he may go, he is seldom or ever welcomed as an acceptable
conversationalist. But when he is a man below mediocre--a pedant--he is
insupportable.
Were it required to state what are the causes of the fault of this
talker, they might be summed up in two words--_ignorance and pride_. The
man who assumes to himself authority over other people's thought and
speech must indeed possess a large measure of these qualities. He must
estimate his powers at the highest value, and set down those of others
at the lowest. He is wise in his own conceit, and in others foolish. He
occupies a position which has been usurped by the stretch of his
self-importance, and from which he should be summarily deposed by the
unanimous vote of pure wisdom and sound intelligence.