foolish, not at all comprehending any truth so as to see whether it be truth or not, and seizing with avidity upon all falsities which were put forth for truths by those who called themselves learned; for of themselves they are unable to discern the truth or falsehood of any proposition, and consequently can understand nothing rationally which they hear from others.
I have also conversed with some who had written much in the world, and indeed on scientific subjects of every kind, and who had thus acquired an extensive reputation for learning. Some of them, indeed, were able to reason about truths and to argue whether they were truths or not. Others, when they turned to those who were in the light of truth, could understand that they were truths; but still they did not wish to understand them. Therefore they denied them when they sunk into their own falsities, thus into themselves. Some were as destitute of wisdom as the unlearned vulgar.
Thus they differed, one from another, according to the degree in which they had cultivated their rational faculty by the scientific works which they had written or copied.
But they who were opposed to the truths of the church and had thought from scientifics and thereby had confirmed themselves in falsities, did not cultivate their rational faculty but only the faculty of arguing. This, indeed, the world calls rationality, but it is quite distinct from it; for it is merely the
