of natural differences between the things they liked, they
inclined to start from different premises in their political
reasonings. Jefferson naturally trusted the people and
believed in their political capacity, because of his optimistic
temperament and because of his hatred of any form of
government which made tyranny possible. Without Jeffer-
son's optimism and Jefferson's hatred of a form of govern-
ment which made tyranny possible, and with a strong love
of order and stability, Hamilton as naturally believed in
a strong government — one strong enough to hold the
people in check — as did Jefferson in a weak one, because
he did not think the people needed much governmental
restraint.
Two Things to be Done in Training the Reasoning
Powers of Pupils. — From this point of view, it is clear
that there are two things to be done in the training of the
reasoning powers of our pupils : (i) To train them to
reason correctly from given premises ; and (2) to give
them such training as will diminish, as much as possible,
the influence of personal considerations in selecting the
premises upon which they base their reasoning — to give
them such a love of truth that it will be able to neutralize
the influence of all merely personal preferences and wishes.
What we want to believe has a great influence on what we
do believe, but it has no influence in determining what
is true.
Calhoun and the South wanted to believe that slavery
was right, and they did ; but that did not make it right.
