Food for thought in an age of lies and disinformation

[michael <michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

237: Benjamin Franklin and the other commissioners who investigated
Antoin Mesmer included this statement in the preface to their report to
the King of France:  ?Perhaps the history of the errors of mankind, all
things considered, is more valuable and interesting than that of their
discoveries.  Truth is uniform and narrow; it constantly exists, and
does not seem to require so much an active energy, as a passive aptitude
of soul in order to encounter it.  But error is endlessly diversified;
it has no reality, but is the pure and simple creation of the mind that
invents it.  In this field the soul has room enough to expand herself,
to display all her beautiful and interesting extravagances and
absurdities.? Franklin, B., et al. 1785. Report of Dr: Benjamin Franklin
and Other Commissioners, Charged by the King of France, with the
Examination of the Animal Magnetism, as Now Practised at Paris.
Translated from the French with a historical introduction [by William
Godwin] (London: J. Johnson): p. xvii.

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Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Chico, CA 95929
530-898-5321
fax 530-898-5901