Callous Self-Conceit
Reading edition
The most hateful form of self-conceit is the callous form, when it boasts and swells up on the score of its own ignorance, as implying exemption from a folly. "We profess not to understand;" "We are so unhappy as to be quite in the dark as to the meaning of this writer;" "All this may be very fine, but we are not ashamed to confess that to us it is quite unintelligible:" then quote a passage without the context, and appeal to the PUBLIC, whether they understand it or not! Wretches! Such books were not written for your public. If it be a work on inward religion, appeal to the inwardly religious, and ask them! If it be of true love and its anguish and its yearnings, appeal to the true lover! What have the public to do with this?
Contents Contents, p.5