The Idea Of Taking What People Call

'the Scientific Method,' Thomas Henry Huxley Once Wrote, 'is Nothing But The Normal Working Of The Human Mind.' That Is To Say, When The Mind Is Working; That Is To Say Further, When It Is Engaged In Correcting Its Mistakes.

. . . Americans Are The Best Entertained And Quite Likely The Least Well-informed People In The Western World.

Television Is Altering The Meaning Of 'being Informed' By Creating A Species Of Information That Might Properly Be Called Disinformation. Disinformation Does Not Mean False Information. It Means Misleading Information - Misplaced, Irrelevant, Fragmented Or Superficial Information - Information That Creates The Illusion Of Knowing Something, But Which In Fact Leads One Away From Knowing.

The Reader Must Come Armed , In A Serious State Of Intellectual Readiness. This Is Not Easy Because He Comes To The Text Alone. In Reading, One's Responses Are Isolated, One'sintellect Thrown Back On Its Own Resourses. To Be Confronted By The Cold Abstractions Of Printed Sentences Is To Look Upon Language Bare, Without The Assistance Of Either Beauty Or Community. Thus, Reading Is By Its Nature A Serious Business. It Is Also, Of Course, An Essentially Rational Activity.

The Written Word Endures, The Spoken Word Disappears