“For syllogisms consist of propositions, and propositions of words; and words are but the current tokens or marks of popular notions of things; wherefore if these notions (which are the souls of words) be grossly and variably collected out of particulars, the whole structure falls to pieces. And it is not the laborious examination either of consequences of arguments or of the truth of propositions that can ever correct the error; being (as the physicians say) in the first digestion; which is not to be rectified by subsequent functions.”
—BACON, “Of the dignity and advancement of learning” (Excerpted in Popkin’s Skepticism: An Anthology, p 126)
The Cabbage Farm 