persons and of things wear at times the most engaging aspect: the wily thief approaches in the garb of scrupulous honesty: the corrupter of hearts carries on his brow nothing but benevolence and candour: vices of every kind assume the guise of virtues: and pleasures that end in misery promise, at first, nothing but delight. In things of less importance, deception and fraud are equally common. The unjust trader gives a false appearance to his wares; and mere empirics in art or science make larger promises than they who are really skilful. This description of what we meet with in the world is supported by further proofs. It is because the arts of deception are spread in every direction, that parents are careful to impress on their inexperienced children the necessity of caution. It is on this account that all reflecting people consider the heedless, the giddy, the easily-confiding, to be in constant danger. It is for this that, as we grow in years, we alter many, if not most of our judgements, and become more suspicious even when, by an increase of our experience, we are less in danger of being deceived. : The world may be called a garden abounding with noxious fruit, among which much may be found is wholesome but unfortunately the far greater part of the former is more enticing to the eye, and, on first taste, far sweeter than the latter. If the simile has ve any truth in it, we are warned never to pluck and eat without the utmost caution. Poets as well as moralists bid us beware how we trust to the world. Shakspeare calls it the guiled shore To a most dangerous sea, the beauteous scarf The seeming truth which cunning times put on As to History, it is full of practical warnings on the subject before us. Let us take one as an example of the rest. When the Greeks, after a ten years' siege, found themselves unable to take Troy by force, they feigned an abandonment, and left behind them a large wooden horse filled with armed men. This being dragged into the city by the credulous Trojans, the men left their concealment in the night, opened the city gates, and gave admission to the besiegers. Thus fell Troy: and thus are all persons liable to be lured to their destruction, who will not mistrust appearances when there is danger of being deceived. Let us, then, in passing through life, never be too secure or confiding,-but when new doctrines are offered to our notice; or new inventions that throw the old into the shade; or new acquaintances whose manners are more engaging than those of tried friends, -let us suspend our judgement, and not be carried away by first impressions: let us wait till time and experience furnish some sure grounds for the opinion we are inclined to form, or the conduct we are disposed to pursue." The points signified by the several divisions or paragraphs of this example, are named, by some teachers, the PROPOSITION and REASON; the CONFIRMATION, or additional reasons; the SIMILE; the QUOTATION or testimony; the EXAMPLE; the CONCLUSION.* * Such divisions may, or may not occur in the development of knowledge under any other title. The following are other theses on which exercises may be written: Home is home.-A rolling stone gathers no moss.— -A burnt child dreads the fire.-Charity begins at home.—There's many a slip 'twixt cup and lip.-Necessity is the mother of invention.-Harm watch, harm catch.-Let the shoemaker keep to his last.-Ignorance is full of wonder.-Nothing venture, nothing have.-Well begun is half done.-Enough is as good as a feast.-'Tis an ill wind that blows nobody good.Tread on a worm, and it will turn.-Penny wise and pound foolish.-Take care of the pence, and the pounds will take care of themselves.-Good words cost nothing.—Better lose a jest than a friend.-Pardon others, but not thyself. He lives long enough who hath lived well.-The worst of crosses, is, never to have had any.-Fools rush in where angels dare not tread. *The several topics (see Sections 12-24) whence the arguments are derived for the parts of this exercise, are, for the Reason, experiment; for the Confirmation, effects; for the Simile, comparison; for the Quotation, testimony; for the Conclusion, adjuncts. CHAPTER V. ERRORS TO WHICH LEARNERS ARE LIABLE IN ATTEMPTS TO DEVELOP KNOWLEDGE.* 1. Experience in aiding pupils to develop their knowledge, will soon make manifest that, according to the disposition of each, and the qualities of his understanding, he will infringe the laws of logical deduction in one or the other of the following ways: 1. BY VERBIAGE; 2. BY CONFUSED REASONING. VERBIAGE. 2. Verbiage is an art which stands by itself: it is the art of joining well-sounding words into correct forms of sentences, with little or no regard to any resulting sense; the art of using language grammatically, but not logically; the art of appearing to reason, and employing words for this end, but of employing them in the absence of the knowledge which they ought to include. We here call it an art: it is an art in the bad sense of the term. own. A pupil who has read, but has not thought a great deal, will have his memory stored with book phraseology, but will be deficient in such knowledge as may be justly called his He can supply this deficiency, only by a determination carried into practice, of reasoning from things; and, consequently, of going back to the inductive process, whenever his knowledge of things shall fail him. But if, instead of taking this course, he seeks only to make a parade of knowledge, by joining terms and phrases familiar to his memory which look well to the eye, and perhaps sound well to the ear, his beginning exercise will, in kind and character, resemble the following example: *Much of what follows, and portions of what precedes, I have already published in a little work called "Practical Logic, or Hints to ThemeWriters," which first appeared in 1823. I state the fact, lest it should be thought I have borrowed from certain compilers of grammar what they have borrowed, without acknowledgement, from me. The pupil pursuing the First Course indicated in the Appendix, will do well to read what immediately follows, but the question put to him will be sufficiently met by what precedes. Wherever a correspondent remark is needed hereafter, this note will be referred to. "On Education. The invaluable blessings of a refined education, are so multifarious in their extent, and so incalculable in their essence, that the understanding and the imagination are equally unable to comprehend the phenomena involved in the boundless subject. Who, indeed, can justly appreciate the ineffable advantages which accrue to gifted individuals, ardent to exhume the germs of scientific lore, and attain the opulent results of disciplinary progress? Educational instruction exalts the faculties, animates the mind, improves the understanding, and, by throwing a divine light on the abstract operations of human intellect, gives a new grace to the whole character. Through the instrumentality of the influence which education alone can impart, we are lifted to another sphere. In short, education is the first of things, the master-key, the universal good; and we are bound at once to reverence its authority, and apply to its pure fountain for mental delight, and intellectual improvement." Let it be supposed that this exercise has been written by a pupil, after a conversation with his teacher on the subject to be developed. Now, when a pupil makes proper use of a conversation so given in aid, the fact that all the immediate knowledge he develops has been supplied by the teacher, is no impeachment of the soundness or reality of the pupil's knowledge for all our knowledge is acquired chiefly from what others communicate: how, and at what time, is of little moment, provided the instructed mind completely embraces and appropriates the knowledge. But there is this difference between two pupils so assisted by a teacher: the one forgets the phrases, and forms of speech, because his understanding has been intent on the things signified, and not on the words; and, therefore, in embodying the reasoning, his style will be his own, not an imitation of his teacher's: the other carries away little more than words and phrases, such as he has been accustomed to admire in reading, and these he puts together in the best way he can, so as to form an exercise more or less resembling the example just given. Such an exercise is not a beginner's essay in methodical think : ing it is an exercise in an art whose purpose is, to conceal the absence of distinct thought: and the teacher, to do his pupil justice, must run his pen through the whole essay, and require a new beginning upon what, to such a pupil, will be altogether a new principle. Not so with the other supposed pupil. Let the expression of thought be ever so poor and meagre, yet if his exercise contain clear evidence that the mind has been at work on the subject suggested, it ought to be accepted as a beginning of logical effort: improvement will come with practice, if the early deficiencies are pointed out and understood. The faults which such a learner is likely to commit, are described and exemplified under the two general heads that follow: CONFUSED REASONING. 3. This fault, when it becomes evident in language, will be found to arise from the absence of proper distinctions and divisions. *The following, which is an exercise by a very young logician on the same subject as the previous example, and may be supposed the result of the same previous suggestions, will serve to show the nature of the fault. "On Education. Education is certainly one of the most important things which belong to man, and the most useful and essential of any, if we reflect what a wild savage race we should be, if it were not for this inestimable blessing, and how very fortunate they ought to think themselves who have friends both able and willing to provide the means of it, without which we should not know the Author of our existence, to whom we are indebted for all our blessings and comforts, and we should not be able to provide for ourselves, for it is not the same with man as it is with birds, which instinct teaches to provide for themselves when they leave the nest of their parents, instead of which we are not only made agreeable in society, but if we * See the second foot-note, page 180. |