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Id sibi maxime formidolosum, privati hominis nomen supra principis attolli: frustra studia fori et civilium artium decus in silentium acta, si militarem gloriam alius occuparet: et cetera utcumque facilius dissimulari: ducis boni imperatoriam virtutem esse.
A curious reader, in that period of excitement about 'spiritualism, would turn to the Revue, attracted by M. Littre's name. This is not very consistent or helpful counsel. Like the rest of us, who are so far beneath M. Littre in grasp and in weight of authority, he was subject to the idola fori, the illusions of the market-place.
"Fuit assiduus mecum," he says a little farther on. This kind of pupilage was called the tirocinium fori, in which a lad should be pursuing his studies for the legal profession, and also his bodily exercises in the Campus Martius, so that he might be ready to serve in the army for the single campaign which was still desirable if not absolutely necessary.
'May the gods bless you, Athenian! she murmured: 'may you be happy with your beloved one! may you sometimes remember Nydia! Alas! she is of no further use on earth! With these words she turned away. Slowly she crept along by the fori, or platforms, to the farther side of the vessel, and, pausing, bent low over the deep; the cool spray dashed upward on her feverish brow.
And did not Spinoza think in Judeo-Portuguese, obstructed by and contending with Dutch? Thought rests upon prejudgements, and prejudgements pass into language. To language Bacon rightly ascribed not a few of the errors of the idola fori. But is it possible to philosophize in pure algebra or even in Esperanto?
Odd enough too on this day, for the first time since the awful 17th January, we entertain at dinner Lady Anna Maria Elliot, W. Clerk, John A. Murray, and Thomas Thomson, as if we gave a dinner on account of my cessio fori. February 25.
Taking source respectively, from the "common infirmity of human nature," from the "erroneous disposition of the people," from "confident adherence to authority," the errors which Browne chooses to deal with may be registered as identical with Bacon's Idola Tribus, Fori, Theatri; the idols of our common human nature; of the vulgar, when they get together; and of the learned, when they get together.
Strange words these to fall from a pleader's lips in the dusty atmosphere of the praetor's court! non fori, neque iudiciali consuetudine, says Cicero himself, in the few words of graceful apology with which the speech ends. But, in truth, as he well knew, he was not speaking to the respectable gentlemen on the benches before him. He addressed a larger audience; posterity, and the civilised world.
The /privilegium fori/, by which clerics were exempted from punishment by a secular tribunal, was another cause of considerable friction.
The idola fori, which arise from the use of language in public intercourse, depend upon the confusion of words, which are mere symbols with a conventional value and which are based on the carelessly constructed concepts of the vulgar, with things themselves. Here Bacon warns us to keep close to things.