Obscure Language The Origin Of Misleading Judgments

An almost infinitely vast number of erroneous and misleading judgments (involving consequently a moral misdemeanour and unrighteous expression in many instances of application) is produced by the employment of language which is obscure and indefinite in its sense. This common error is prominent in the present age of slovenly speech, its correlative confusion of thought, and a deficient sense of responsibility. Nicety in the use of words is the mark of careful discriminations of thought. But this is rarely attained; the average mind finds its greater ease in condemnation in the gross, without the exercise of that incumbent judicial care which notes the distinctions that form the just and balanced judgment. And the corollary may be added that the vast majority of false conclusions reached by inference rest, not so much in any defect of the formal logic pursued, as on the shifting and inconsistent meaning of the term employed which forms the middle or connecting term in the inferential act.

The Loose Use Of The Word "Speculation."

No word is more loosely used than the term speculation; and it may fairly be asserted that in most minds - minds unaccustomed to the rigorous employment of language under the stress of responsibility - speculation and gambling are treated as synonyms. As the subject is a portion of the search for truth, a few observations are obviously appropriate to the scope of this book. The use of relevant words, particularly on grave occasions - and what occasion may not be rendered grave by the adoption of misleading terms? - is no less a demand upon the intellect for clearness, than a claim upon the conscience for fitting selection. Etymology1 is of minor service, as I have said, in determining correct definitions; it furnishes the origin and purpose of a term as a necessity of nomenclature when some verbal distinction was required to mark a new event, or a novel procedure, or a fresh want, or a shade of difference which a general cognate word did not sufficiently express; thus confusion and carelessness of usage compel us to settle definitions by an analysis, comparison and induction of actual applications.

The Words "Investment," "Speculation " And "Gambling" Considered

I now consider the common view - stupid though it be - which merges speculation and gambling into one meaning, and that meaning associated with the hazards of dice and cards. The three terms - investment, speculation and gambling - concur in their relation to the future, and the greater or less degree of uncertainty which is sometimes spoken of as chance.

1 Speculation: Latin spcculari, to watch, spy out, derived from specula, a watch-tower. In Macbeth (Act III. sc. iv.) the word has the fuller meaning of the mental intelligence whose medium is the eye (and so in Stanza lvii. of In Memoriam). Gambling, the verb, has not been discovered in literature until about 1775 to 1786; the apparent derivatives gamble and gambling occur earlier, and in the eighteenth century were regarded as slang. The origin appears to be the Old English gamenian, to sport or play, from gamen, a game.

An Investor In Railway Shares

So far, then, no distinction exists. When the ordinary investor purchases shares in a railway company he is, from the nature of the case, speculating (weighing future chances) upon the prospects of the line (to be revealed in future dividends and prices); upon (consequently) the course of trade on whose prosperity the dividends of the railway depend; and (perhaps) upon the possibility of an adverse position by some invention which may introduce electrical traction in an adaptable form. He naturally would refrain from buying unless he judged that the probabilities of a maintained or improved condition were superior to those of an adverse character. His distinctive position, of course, is that of one who seeks a permanent source of income: not a mere series of purchases and sales undertaken solely for the purpose of snatching successive profits. But the investment is still of the nature of a speculation in future issues.

A Tradesman Purchasing His Stock Of Goods

The tradesman speculates (on the basis of experience, but still with unknown elements entering into his decision) when he purchases his stock of goods; he speculates upon the probable needs and tastes (their kind and amount) of his future customers, in regulating the extent and nature of the goods he shall buy; and if he considers that the prices of the commodities in which he deals are likely to increase, he probably supplies himself with a larger quantity than would otherwise be his practice, in the hope of profiting by the anticipated rise. This speculation is perfectly legitimate, and forms the reasonable reward, as compared with his rivals who may not similarly act, of wider and more competent observation which he has trained himself to exercise, and of greater foresight and courage of enterprise. By employing his special knowledge, which he has been careful to enlarge and refine, and laying in a larger stock than usual, he is distinctly speculating (not on mere chance, however, but on a weighing of chances), upon an increase in values and consequent profit, while he is also liable, if adverse events occur, to sustain a heavier loss. Here, then, definitely appears the element of speculation in the future, but what sane and just man can even in the faintest degree associate the venture with gambling?