I cannot boast of much success in acquiring the reality of this virtue,
but I had a good deal with regard to the appearance of it.
I made it a rule to forbear all direct contradiction to the
sentiments of others, and all positive assertion of my own.
I even forbid myself, agreeably to the old laws of our Junto,
the use of every word or expression in the language that imported
a fix'd opinion, such as certainly, undoubtedly, etc., and I adopted,
instead of them, I conceive, I apprehend, or I imagine a thing to be
so or so; or it so appears to me at present. When another asserted
something that I thought an error, I deny'd myself the pleasure
of contradicting him abruptly, and of showing immediately some
absurdity in his proposition; and in answering I began by observing
that in certain cases or circumstances his opinion would be right,
but in the present case there appear'd or seem'd to me some difference,
etc. I soon found the advantage of this change in my manner;
the conversations I engag'd in went on more pleasantly. The modest
way in which I propos'd my opinions procur'd them a readier reception
and less contradiction; I had less mortification when I was found
to be in the wrong, and I more easily prevail'd with others to give
up their mistakes and join with me when I happened to be in the right.
And this mode, which I at first put on with some violence to
natural inclination, became at length so easy, and so habitual
to me, that perhaps for these fifty years past no one has ever
heard a dogmatical expression escape me.
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