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Article PROFESSIONAL AUTHORITY. Page 1 of 6 →
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Professional Authority.
PROFESSIONAL AUTHORITY .
The opinions of mankind upon subjects which they do not , and cannot , understand , because they have not studied them , are framed on very curious grounds . The popular mind is pretty generally swayed by professional dicta . It is very reasonably conjectured that men who have devoted their lives to particular studies should understand them better than , others . Hence professional opinions are
respected , and sometimes bought and paid for at a fictitious price : but so unstable is the human mind , that the experience of ages is often set at nought , and even goes for nothing , when established opinions are besieged and stormed with sufficient arrogance and impudence . It is only necessary that an anonymous scribbler ( whose lucrubations by some accident have found a place in a periodical
which has been puffed into popularity ) should be sufficiently dogmatical , unscrupulous , and mendacious , —and thousands will be gulled into the belief that he is right . A writer in a recent number of The Times has had the modesty to assume that he ( the representative of the fourth estate ) understands the mysteries of every calling as well as , nay , better than , those whose attention has been professionally
engaged upon it during a large portion of the whole life . He knows better how to conduct a campaign or a siege than any commander-inchief ; he takes the lawyers by the shoulders and sets them right ; he understands divinity , physic , architecture , music , poetry , and politics , better than any divine , physician , architect , musician , doctor , or cabinet councillor ; and one can only regret that he is not at once
constituted Prime Minister , Metropolitan Archbishop , President of the College of Physicians , Lord Chancellor , Poet Laureate , —universal professor of all arts , sciences , and literature . True , this conceit , in its milder ratios , has found favour with great minds . We have some recollection of a paper in the " Rambler , " wherein Dr . Johnson undertakes to prove to demonstration , for the benefit of the then vol . i . 4 II
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Professional Authority.
PROFESSIONAL AUTHORITY .
The opinions of mankind upon subjects which they do not , and cannot , understand , because they have not studied them , are framed on very curious grounds . The popular mind is pretty generally swayed by professional dicta . It is very reasonably conjectured that men who have devoted their lives to particular studies should understand them better than , others . Hence professional opinions are
respected , and sometimes bought and paid for at a fictitious price : but so unstable is the human mind , that the experience of ages is often set at nought , and even goes for nothing , when established opinions are besieged and stormed with sufficient arrogance and impudence . It is only necessary that an anonymous scribbler ( whose lucrubations by some accident have found a place in a periodical
which has been puffed into popularity ) should be sufficiently dogmatical , unscrupulous , and mendacious , —and thousands will be gulled into the belief that he is right . A writer in a recent number of The Times has had the modesty to assume that he ( the representative of the fourth estate ) understands the mysteries of every calling as well as , nay , better than , those whose attention has been professionally
engaged upon it during a large portion of the whole life . He knows better how to conduct a campaign or a siege than any commander-inchief ; he takes the lawyers by the shoulders and sets them right ; he understands divinity , physic , architecture , music , poetry , and politics , better than any divine , physician , architect , musician , doctor , or cabinet councillor ; and one can only regret that he is not at once
constituted Prime Minister , Metropolitan Archbishop , President of the College of Physicians , Lord Chancellor , Poet Laureate , —universal professor of all arts , sciences , and literature . True , this conceit , in its milder ratios , has found favour with great minds . We have some recollection of a paper in the " Rambler , " wherein Dr . Johnson undertakes to prove to demonstration , for the benefit of the then vol . i . 4 II