3960. Aristotle was also told that their Erudition today is such, that the scholastics especially, who call themselves Aristotelians, can write a whole page full, and express matters in mere scholastic terms, such as transsubstantiality, predicaments, entities, and the like from their terminology, and when one reads a page so written, it is hardly understood by themselves, let alone by others, and yet they still maintain that it is something special and imagine that it is profound, most learned, when yet it is the kind of stuff that when some sensible person extracts meaning from it, rejecting the scholarly terminology, he can express the matter clearly in several lines in a way that anyone can understand it, even the uneducated, while the learned through their scholarly language grasp little if anything of it. 1748, 12 Nov.
3960. It was also said to Aristotle that such was at this day the erudition of those, especially the schoolmen, who call themselves Aristotelians, that they could fill an entire page with their writing and express things by mere scholastic terms, such as transubtantiality, predicaments, entities, and the like, [drawn] from their terminology, and when the page thus written is read, it can scarcely be understood either by themselves or others, and yet they will have it that it means something [important], and they deem this learned and most learned, when yet these things are of such a nature that when a man of sense considers their import he rejects [them as mere] scholastic terms, and can in two lines so clearly explain the same thing that anyone, however unlearned, can understand what is meant, while the learned, by their scholastic diction, can scarcely perceive little if any meaning at all. - 1748, November 12.
3960. Dictum est Aristoteli etiam, quod talis eorum Eruditio hodie, quod scholastici imprimis, qui vocant se Aristotelicos, scribere possint integram paginam plenam, et res exprimere meris terminis scholasticis, ut transsubstantialitate, praedicamentis, entitatibus, et similibus ex terminis eorum, et cum legitur pagina ita scripta, vix intelligitur ab iis, nec ab aliis, sed usque volunt ut aliquid sit, hoc doctum et doctissimum putant, cum tamen talia sint, ut dum scitus quidam evolvit sensum inde, et tunc rejicit terminos scholasticos, quod per binas lineas exponere possit eandem rem clare, ut quilibet intelligat quid sit, etiam indocti, cum docti per eorum linguam scholasticam parum si quicquam percipiant. 1748, 12 Nov.