Blue mist and gaping mouths

Meaning

Blue mist is the introduction’s image for deceptive display. False claimants misuse philosophical writings as a cover, make people gape and place a blue mist before their eyes. Its force is obstructed judgment and manufactured wonder, not an observed blue vapour in the work. The companion dangers of smoke should therefore not be imported into this idiom. The English keeps both the visual mist and the bodily image of gaping, rather than replacing them with the bare word “deceive.” The warning addresses deceivers and those who let themselves be deceived, making credulity as well as fraud part of the ethical problem.