Vehemence Without Feeling Is But Rant.

It Is Not True That A Man Can Believe Or Disbelieve What He Will. But It Is Certain That An Active Desire To Find Any Proposition True Will Unconsciously Tend To That Result By Dismissing Importunate Suggestions Which Run Counter To The Belief, And Welcoming Those Which Favor It. The Psychological Law, That We Only See What Interests Us, And Only Assimilate What Is Adapted To Our Condition, Causes The Mind To Select Its Evidence.

It Is Always Understood As An Expression Of Condemnation When Anything In Literature Or Art Is Said To Be Done For Effect; And Yet To Produce An Effect Is The Aim And End Of Both.

If A Work Of Art Is Placed Before Me, I Believe I Can Enjoy It; But I Do Not Overlook The Fact, That Art Is One Thing, Another Thing Amusement; And That People Do Like Amusements, And Will Run After It.

Metaphysical Ghosts Cannot Be Killed, Because They Cannot Be Touched; But They May Be Dispelled By Dispelling The Twilight In Which Shadows And Solidities Are Easily Confounded. The Vital Principle Is An Entity Of This Ghostly Kind; And Although The Daylight Has Dissipated It, And Positive Biology Is No Longer Vexed With Its Visitations, It Nevertheless Reappears In Another Shape In The Shadowy Region Of Mystery Which Surrounds Biological And All Other Questions.

There Are Occasions When The Simplest And Fewest Words Surpass In Effect All The Wealth Of Rhetorical Amplification.