PHILOSOPHICAL ARRANGEMENTS,

ADDRESSED TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THOMAS LORD HYDE, CHANCELLOR OF THE DUCHY OF LANCASTER, ETC.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION-SCOPE OR END OF THE INQUIRY-BEGINS FROM THE ARRANGEMENT OF SIMPLE, OR SINGLE TERMS-CHARACTER OF THESE TERMS-NATURE AND MULTITUDE OF THE OBJECTS WHICH THEY

REPRESENT.

PHILOSOPHY, taking its name from the love of wisdom, and having for its end the investigation of truth, has an equal regard both to practice and speculation, inasmuch as truth of every kind is similar and congenial. Hence we find that some of the most illustrious actors upon the great theatre of the world have been engaged at times in philosophical speculation. Pericles, who governed Athens, was the disciple of Anaxagoras; Epaminondas spent his youth in the Pythagorean school; Alexander the Great had Aristotle for his preceptor; and Scipio made Polybius his companion and friend. Why need I mention Cicero, or Cato, or Brutus? The orations, the epistles, and the philosophical works of the first, shew him sufficiently conversant both in action and contemplation. So eager was Cato for knowledge," even when surrounded with business, that he used to read philosophy in the senate-house, while the senate was assembling: and as for the patriot Brutus, though his life was a continual scene of the most important action, he found time not only to study, but to compose a treatise upon Virtue.b

Thus Cicero describes him: Quippe qui, ne reprehensionem quidem volgi inanem reformidans, in ipsa curia soleret legere sæpe, dum senatus cogeretur, nihil operæ reipublicæ detrahens. De Fin. iii. 2. Where it is worth remarking, that Cato considered his application to literature as no way obstructing his duty to the commonwealth. The studious character and the political in him were united.

Thus the same Cicero: Placere enim tibi (Bruto scil.) admodum sensi, et ex eo libro quem ad me accuratissime scripsisti, et

ex multis sermonibus tuis, virtutem ad beate vivendum se ipsa esse contentam. Tuscul. Disput. v. 1. And again: Provocatus gratissimo mihi libro, quem de Virtute scripsisti. De Fin. 1. iii.

One or two short fragments of this treatise of Brutus are preserved in Seneca, De Consolat. ad Helv. c. 9.

As to Pericles, Epaminondas, and the other great names mentioned in the same page with Cato and Brutus, see note e in the following page.

When these were gone, and the worst of times succeeded, Thrasea Pætus and Helvidius Priscus were at the same period both senators and philosophers, and appear to have supported the severest trials of tyrannic oppression by the manly system of the Stoic moral. The best emperor whom the Romans, or perhaps any nation, ever knew, Marcus Antoninus, was involved during his whole life in business of the last consequence; sometimes conspiracies forming, which he was obliged to dissipate; formidable wars arising at other times, when he was obliged to take the field. Yet during none of these periods did he forsake philosophy, but still persisted in meditation, and in committing his thoughts to writing, during moments gained by stealth from the hurry of courts and campaigns.

If we descend to later ages, and search our own country, we shall find sir Thomas More, sir Philip Sidney, sir Walter Raleigh, lord Herbert of Cherbury, Milton, Algernon Sidney, sir William Temple, and many others, to have been all of them eminent in public life, and yet at the same time conspicuous for their speculations and literature. If we look abroad, examples of like character will occur in other countries. Grotius, the poet, the critic, the philosopher, and the divine, was employed by the court of Sweden as ambassador to France: and De Witt, that acute but unfortunate statesman, that pattern of parsimony and political accomplishments, was an able mathematician, wrote upon the elements of curves, and applied his algebra with accuracy to the trade and commerce of his country.

And so much in defence of philosophy, against those who may possibly undervalue her, because they have succeeded without her; those I mean (and it must be confessed they are many) who, having spent their whole lives in what Milton calls "the busy hum of men," have acquired to themselves habits of amazing efficacy, unassisted by the helps of science and erudition. To such the retired student may appear an awkward being, because they want a just standard to measure his merit. But let them recur to the bright examples before alleged; let them remember that these were eminent in their own way; were men of action and business; men of the world; and yet they did not disdain to cultivate philosophy, nay, were many of them perhaps indebted to her for the splendor of their active character.

See Arr. Epictet. lib. i. c. 1, 2. and the notes of my late worthy friend, the learned editor, Upton. See also Mrs. Carter's excellent translation.

4 See the original, particularly in Gataker's edition. See also the learned and accurate translation of Meric Casaubon.

e The following authorities may serve to confirm the truth of this assertion.

In Plutarch's Life of Pericles we read as follows: 'O de πλeîσтa Пepikλeî σvyyevó

μενος, καὶ μάλιστα περιθεὶς ἄγκον αὐτῷ καὶ φρόνημα δημαγωγίας ἐμβριθέστερον, ὅλως τε μετεωρίσας καὶ συνεξάρας τὸ ἀξίωμα τοῦ ἤθους, Αναξαγόρας ἦν ὁ Κλαζο μένιος, ἂν οἱ τότ ̓ ἄνθρωποι νοῦν προσηyópevov: "But he who was most conversant with Pericles, and most contributed to give him a grandeur of mind, and to make his high spirit for governing the popular assemblies more weighty and authoritative; in a word, who exalted his ideas,

This reasoning has a further end. It justifies me in the address of these philosophical arrangements, as your lordship

has been distinguished in either character, I mean in your public one, as well as in your private. Those who know the history of our foreign transactions, know the reputation that you acquired both in Poland and in Germany: and those who are honoured with your nearer friendship, know that you can speculate as well as act, and can employ your pen both with elegance and instruction.

It may not, perhaps, be unentertaining to your lordship to see, in what manner the preceptor of Alexander the Great arranged his pupil's ideas, so that they might not cause confusion for want of accurate disposition. It may be thought, also, a fact worthy of your notice, that he became acquainted with this method from the venerable Pythagoras, who, unless he drew it from remoter sources, to us unknown, was, perhaps, himself its inventor and original teacher."

Poets relate, that Venus was wedded to Vulcan, the goddess of beauty to the god of deformity. The tale, as some explain it, gives a double representation of art; Vulcan shewing us the progressions of art, and Venus the completions. The progressions, such as the hewing of stone, the grinding of colours, the fusion of metals, these, all of them, are laborious, and many times disgustful: the completions, such as the temple, the palace, the picture, the statue, these, all of them, are beauties, and justly call for admiration. losopher Aristo, and Pompey for the philosopher Cratippus. Ælian well remarks, on these two great Romans, that "they did not, because their power was great, despise those who had the power of doing them the greatest services:” où yàp, étel μéya dú ναντο, ὑπερεφρόνουν τῶν τὰ μέγιστα αὐ Toùs ovĥσai duvaμévwv. Ælian. Var. Hist. .vii. 21.

In the same author, 1. iii. c. 17. there is an express dissertation on this subject, worthy of perusal, as being filled with examples both from the Grecian and Roman history.

To these citations I shall add only one or two more: Et certe non tulit ullos hæc civitas aut gloria clariores, aut auctoritate graviores, aut humanitate politiores, P. Africano, C. Lælio, L. Furio, qui secum eruditissimos homines ex Græcia palam semper habuerunt. Cic. de Orat. ii. 37.

In the same work, to prove the union of the philosophical character and the political, we have the following testimony, taken from the history of those sages, so much celebrated in antiquity, Pittacus, Bias, Solon, &c. Hi omnes, præter Milesium Thalem, civitatibus suis præfuerunt. De Orator. iii. 34.

See also Cicero's tract styled Orator, sect. 15. p. 137. edit. Oxon. and the Phædrus of Plato, p. 1237, edit. Ficini: in both which places, the intimacy above men

tioned between Pericles and Anaxagoras is recorded, and the importance also of this intimacy, as to the weight it gave Pericles in the commonwealth of Athens.

The treaty of Warsaw, negotiated and signed by lord Hyde, was made in January, 1745; that of Dresden, made under lord Hyde's mediation, was signed the December following. By this last treaty, not only the peace of Germany was restored, but the Austrian Netherlands, and the king of Sardinia's territories, were in consequence of it preserved.

8 From Pythagoras it passed to his disciples, and among others to Archytas, who wrote upon the subject in the Doric dialect, the dialect generally used by Pythagoras and his followers. This treatise of Archytas is in part still extant, though but little known, large quotations out of it being inserted by Simplicius into that valuable but rare book, his Commentaries on the Predicaments, from which many of them are transferred into the notes upon the different chapters of this work.

Fabricius, in his Bibliotheca Græca, vol. i. p. 394, mentions a tract upon this subject, published at Venice, anno 1571, under the name of Archytas; but he informs us withal, that its authenticity is doubted, because the above-mentioned quotations from Archy tas, made by Simplicius, are not to be found there. This tract I have never seen.

Now if logic be one of those arts which help to improve human reason, it must necessarily be an art of the progressive character; an art which, not ending with itself, has a view to something further. If, then, in the following speculations, it should appear dry rather than elegant, severe rather than pleasing, let it plead, by way of defence, that, though its importance may be great, it partakes, from its very nature, (which cannot be changed,) more of the deformed god, than of the beautiful goddess.

The subject commences in the manner following.

The vulgar can give reasons to a certain degree," and can examine, after a manner, the reasons given them by others. And what is this, but natural logic? If, therefore, these efforts of theirs have an effect, and nothing happen without a cause, this effect must, of necessity, be derived from certain principles.

The question, then, is, What these principles are; for if these can be once investigated, and then knowingly applied, we shall be enabled to do by rule, what others do by hazard; and in what we do, as much to excel the uninstructed reasoner, as a disciplined boxer surpasses an untaught rustic.

Now, in the investigation of these principles, we are first taught to observe, that every science (as arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy) may be resolved into its theorems; every theorem into its syllogisms; every syllogism into its propositions; and every proposition into certain simple or single terms.

If this be admitted, it is not difficult to see, that, in order to know science, a man must know first what makes a theorem ; in order to know theorems, he must know first what makes a syllogism; in order to know syllogisms, he must know first what makes propositions; and to acquire a general knowledge of these, he must first know simple or single terms, since it is out of these that propositions are all of them compounded.

And thus we may perceive, that where these several resolutions end, it is hence precisely the disquisition is to begin. It

* Πάντες γὰρ μέχρι τινὸς καὶ ἐξετάζειν καὶ ὑπέχειν λόγον, καὶ ἀπολογεῖσθαι καὶ κατηγορεῖν ἐγχειροῦσιν. Τῶν μὲν οὖν πολλῶν οἱ μὲν εἰκῆ, κ. τ. λ. “Omnes enim quadam tenus et exquirere et sustinere rationem, et defendere, et accusare aggrediuntur. At ex imperita quidem multitudine alii temere,” &c. Arist. Rhetor. 1. i. c. 1. See also, p. 46, note h.

4 There is an elegant simile, taken from architecture, to illustrate this speculation. The quotation from the original author (Ammonius) may be found in the Dialogue concerning Art, p. 14, note h, to which a translation is there subjoined.

Ammonius, after he has produced his similitude, applies it as follows.

Οὕτως οὖν καὶ ὁ φιλόσοφος ποιεῖ· βου

λόμενος γὰρ ποιῆσαι ἀπόδειξιν, φησὶ πρὸς ἑαυτὸν, βούλομαι περὶ ἀποδείξεως εἰπεῖν. ̓Αλλ ̓ ἐπειδὴ ἡ ἀπόδειξις συλλογισμός ἐστιν ἐπιστημονικὸς, ἀδύνατον εἰπεῖν περὶ τούτου τὸν μὴ πρότερον εἴποντα, τί ἐστι συλλογισμός· τὸν δὲ ἁπλῶς συλλογισμὸν οὐκ ἂν μαθοιμεν, οὐ μαθόντες, τί ἐστι πρότασις λόγοι μὲν γὰρ τινές εἰσιν αἱ προτάσεις τῶν δὲ τοιούτων λόγων συλλογή ἐστιν ὁ συλλογισμός· ὥστε ἄνευ τοῦ γνῶναι τὰς προτάσεις, ἀδύνατον μαθεῖν τὸν συλλογισμόν· ἐκ γὰρ τούτων σύγκειται· ἀλλ ̓ οὐδὲ τὴν πρότασιν, ἄνευ τῶν ὀνομάτων καὶ τῶν ῥη μάτων, ἐξ ὧν συνέστηκε πᾶς λόγος· τὰ δὲ ὀνόματα, καὶ ῥήματα ἄνευ τῶν ἁπλῶν φωνῶν· ἕκαστον γὰρ τούτων φωνή ἐστι σημαντική. Δεῖ οὖν πρότερον περὶ τῶν ἁπλῶν φωνῶν εἰπεῖν. Ἐνταῦθα οὖν ἡ