Bacon's "Idola."

If any of you are desirous of dealing honestly with yourselves in this matter, it would be well for you to fall back on the works of that great Master-Thinker, Bacon; and by a due appreciation of the manner and extent in and to which you find yourself affected by the Idola which he indicates as the chief impediments to knowledge and truth, prepare your minds for the formation and adoption, for yourselves, of sound and just opinions, when you are called upon or desire to do so; instead of being satisfied with authority on the subject. Having acquired the right mode of proceeding, you will have to take care in the first place to be provided with the facts upon which arguments and conclusions are to be founded; to assume nothing to be true about which there can be serious doubt, and to look for the facts which bear on both or all sides of the question, and not for those only which tend to support one side of it; you will then take care to reason from the facts or propositions, which are established to your satisfaction, in a fair and rational manner, which, though it may not require a knowledge of the science of logic to ensure, still needs patience, and a constant exercise of what I may call intellectual vigour and honesty.