We are in posses

may be desirable for us to attain in life. sion, indeed, of a vast number of facts, but they lie for the most part unconnectedly and incoherently in the mind. Of a number of others we have a loose and vague notion, just sufficient to admit of consciousness that they exist and have names attached to them, which names we know well, without knowing the things themselves. Still less, however, in these latter fragments of knowledge than in the former do we perceive any sort of coherency or natural connexion : and upon a review of the whole of our acquirements during the long time that we have been employed in making them, the feeling which takes full possession of our mind is, that nine-tenths of all that we learned has been forgotten; that we are well acquainted with no one subject whatever; and that in nearly every point which most concerns us, we are

Unpractised, unprepared, and still to seek.'

"But, by the system of Jacotot, the faculties of the mind are kept in constant action, from the commencement to the end of the course of instruction; the first acquisitions, as well as all that succeed, are permanently retained, and accordingly every thing learned once is learned for ever."—pp. 2–6.

If we ever learn any more languages, we shall be tempted to begin on this system, which seems to us admirably calculated to help such an achievement. Our readers will judge for themselves of the Synopsis of the Method; and as for the introduction to Latin, the Epitome Historiæ Sacræ, -it can scarcely be too highly praised. The style rises from extreme simplicity (through a most ingenious choice of parallel idioms) to a considerable degree of involution; and the pupil is led on insensibly from phrases so inartificial that he cannot mistake them, to paragraphs of easy and even elegant Latinity. This little work, originally compiled by M. L'Homond, Emeritus Professor in the University of Paris, is used as an introduction to the Latin language in nearly all the Jacototian establishments on the continent.

We give the Synopsis of the method of learning a language; and (by way of specimen of the plan of the work) the first and the last sections of the Epitome, by contrasting which the extent of the pupil's progress may be perceived:

"Make yourself master of some one book written in the language you wish to acquire : that is, commit it to memory – repeat it incessantly-take notice of every sentence, phrase, word, and syllable it contains-study and compare these facts of the language, and analyze them first in the aggregate, then in the detail, so as ultimately to obtain a thorough knowledge of their minutest elements. Refer, by continual reflection, all or any other books in the language to the one you have mastered: that is, compare every sentence, phrase, word, and syllable that you meet with afterwards with those of the book you have learned, and thus make what you know serviceable in interpreting and acquiring what you do not yet know. And, in the last place, verify the observations of others by what you know yourself; that is, read the remarks that have been made on the language as you find them in grammars, books of idioms, dissertations on style, &c. Try or put to the proof the correctness of these remarks, by comparing them with the general observations you have yourself made on the facts that you know you will thus systematize your knowledge, and ultimately master the language.” Epitome, p. vii.

ESSAYS ON THE PURSUIT OF TRUTH.*

*

We have denied ourselves the pleasure of a more extended notice of the first two Essays, from a desire to enlarge upon the contents of the third, (on the Uniformity of Causation,) which forms by far the most important portion of the volume, as the positions it is intended to establish induce more momentous consequences than almost any others in the whole range of human inquiry. It contains little that is new; but the abstruse questions which formerly were debated among the learned alone are here presented in a manner likely to engage the attention of many who have hitherto been strangers to their attraction. As the influence of this Essay may therefore be powerful and extensive, it is of considerable consequence whether its reasonings are sound, and its conclusions just. If not, the time will be well bestowed which is employed in exposing their fallacy.

The two principal questions, to the elucidation of which our author's reasonings tend, are the doctrine of Philosophical Necessity, and the determination of the legitimate bounds of Testimony.

The first chapter is "On the Assumption implied in all our Expectations, that like Causes will produce like Effects, or of the future Uniformity of Causation."

The first declaration that we meet with is, that the belief in the uniformity of causation is an instinctive principle. We doubt it. Have we any belief in the connexion of

* Essays on the Pursuit of Truth, the Progress of Knowledge, and on the Fundamental Principle of all Evidence and Expectation. By the Author of " Essays on the Formation and Publication of Opinions." London: Hunter. 1829.

cause and effect antecedent to experiment? And if the idea of such connexion is only suggested by experience, is not the principle of Association, which is at the same time the agent in a multitude of other processes, sufficient to account for the belief? "A burned child dreads the fire," not from an instinctive belief that fire always burns, but because the pain of the burn is associated in his mind with the sight of the fire. If he were assured that the same fire which hurts him would not burn his nurse, he would be less incredulous on the subject than his nurse would be, if a similar assurance was made to her and she, again, might be more easily induced to credit so extraordinary a declaration than the philosopher who understands the theory of combustion. Such degrees of persuasion, we conceive, could not exist, were the minds of these three persons actuated by an instinctive principle. It is unphilosophical to multiply principles unnecessarily; and it appears to us that the belief in question is generated by association. All the circumstances of life tend so strongly to confirm it, that a very short experience is sufficient to establish it too firmly to be overthrown; and the assumption of the uniformity of causation becomes the basis of all action, the essential principle of all expectation.

The author carefully points out to his readers the distinction between the physical truth that the same causes produce the same effects, and the mental fact that we assume, or take for granted, this uniformity in the operation of causes. In speaking of the former, he uses the phrase Uniformity of Causation the latter, he terms an assumption of the uniformity of causation. We prefer the term Uniformity of Causation to that of Necessary Connexion, because our ignorance of the nature of the connexion forbids us to term it necessary or inevitable. Of the essences of substances we have no knowledge, and can form no conception;