erfect: in all matters of
opinion our adversaries are insane. When I look around me, I am often
troubled to see how many people are mad. To mention only a few:

The Atheist, The Theosophists, The Infidel, The Swedenborgians, The
Agnostic, The Shakers, The Baptist, The Millerites, The Methodist, The
Mormons, The Christian Scientist, The Laurence Oliphant Harrisites, The
Catholic, and the 115 Christian sects, the Presbyterian excepted,
The Grand Lama's people, The Monarchists, The Imperialists, The 72
Mohammedan sects, The Democrats, The Republicans (but not the
Mugwumps), The Buddhist, The Blavatsky-Buddhist, The Mind-Curists, The
Faith-Curists, The Nationalist, The Mental Scientists, The Confucian,
The Spiritualist, The Allopaths, The 2000 East Indian sects, The
Homeopaths, The Electropaths, The Peculiar People, The--

But there's no end to the list; there are millions of them! And all
insane; each in his own way; insane as to his pet fad or opinion,
but otherwise sane and rational. This should move us to be charitable
towards one another's lunacies. I recognize that in his special belief
the Christian Scientist is insane, because he does not believe as I
do; but I hail him as my mate and fellow, because I am as insane as he
insane from his point of view, and his point of view is as authoritative
as mine and worth as much. That is to say, worth a brass farthing. Upon
a great religious or political question, the opinion of the dullest head
in the world is worth the same as the opinion of the brightest head in
the world--a brass farthing. How do we arrive at this? It is simple.
The affirmative opinion of a stupid man is neutralized by the negative
opinion of his stupid neighbor no decision is reached; the affirmative
opinion of the intellectual giant Gladstone is neutralized by the
negative opinion of the intellectual giant Newman--no decision is
reached. Opinions that prove nothing are, of course, without value any
but a dead person knows that much. This obliges us to admit the truth
of the unpalatable proposition just mentioned above--that, in disputed
matters political and religious, one man's opinion is worth no more than
his peer's, and hence it followers that no man's opinion possesses any
real value. It is a humbling thought, but there is no way to get around
it: all opinions upon these great subjects are brass-farthing opinions.

It is a mere plain, simple fact--as clear and as certain as that eight
and seven ma