Poisoning the Well

[St. Catherine]

A little trivia that I found.

[quote][b]Poisoning the Well[/b]

[b]Etymology: [/b]The phrase "poisoning the well" ultimately alludes to the medieval European myth that the black plague was caused by Jews poisoning town wells—a myth which was used as an excuse to persecute Jews.

The phrase was first used in its relevant sense by Cardinal John Henry Newman during a controversy with Charles Kingsley:

[quote]"…[W]hat I insist upon here…is this unmanly attempt of his, in his concluding pages, to cut the ground from under my feet;—to poison by anticipation the public mind against me, John Henry Newman, and to infuse into the imaginations of my readers, suspicion and mistrust of every thing that I may say in reply to him. This I call poisoning the wells.

"'I am henceforth in doubt and fear,' he says, 'as much as any honest man can be, concerning every word Dr. Newman may write. How can I tell that I shall not be the dupe of some cunning equivocation?' …

"Well, I can only say, that, if his taunt is to take effect, I am but wasting my time in saying a word in answer to his foul calumnies… We all know how our imagination runs away with us, how suddenly and at what a pace;—the saying, 'Caesar's wife should not be suspected,' is an instance of what I mean. The habitual prejudice, the humour of the moment, is the turning-point which leads us to read a defence in a good sense or a bad. We interpret it by our antecedent impressions. The very same sentiments, according as our jealousy is or is not awake, or our aversion stimulated, are tokens of truth or of dissimulation and pretence. There is a story of a sane person being by mistake shut up in the wards of a Lunatic Asylum, and that, when he pleaded his cause to some strangers visiting the establishment, the only remark he elicited in answer was, 'How naturally he talks! you would think he was in his senses.' Controversies should be decided by the reason; is it legitimate warfare to appeal to the misgivings of the public mind and to its dislikings? Any how, if Mr. Kingsley is able thus to practise upon my readers, the more I succeed, the less will be my success. … The more triumphant are my statements, the more certain will be my defeat."
(John Henry Newman, Apologia Pro Vita Sua)[/quote][/quote]

[url="http://www.fallacyfiles.org/poiswell.html"]http://www.fallacyfiles.org/poiswell.html[/url]

[Cure of Ars]

I hate when I post under my wifes name. This post is mine.

[phatcatholic]

interesting..............nice link too, btw (good to have something like that in the ol' collection)

[phatcatholic]

cure..............do you have any more sites like that? i always use [url="http://www.datanation.com/fallacies/"]this one[/url]

[Cure of Ars]

[quote name='phatcatholic' date='Jul 7 2005, 11:55 PM']cure..............do you have any more sites like that? i always use this one[/url]
[right][snapback]635361[/snapback][/right]
[/quote]



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[url="http://library.humboldt.edu/~ccm/crithink.html"]http://library.humboldt.edu/~ccm/crithink.html[/url]

[url="http://www.criticalreading.com/learnreadwritetoc.htm"]http://www.criticalreading.com/learnreadwritetoc.htm[/url]

Edited July 8, 2005 by Cure of Ars

[phatcatholic]

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[Cure of Ars]