text:  The really skilful and judicious steer clear of it from a fear of compromising their credit for commonsense; and while the caution necessarily attendant upon habitual scientific studies dissuades the best men from meddling with that which may blight their hardly-earned laurels the public is left to be swayed to and fro by an under-current of fallacious half-truths far more seductive and dangerous than absolute falsehoods