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on through a courfer of ages others have given afmall beginning to things " which, in fucceeding times, will be brought to greater perfection. The be“ginning of a thing, though small, is the

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chief part of it, and requires the great"eft degree of invention; for it is eafy

to make additions to inventions once "begun. Now with regard to the dia"lectical art, there was not fomething "done, and fomething remaining to be "done. There was abfolutely nothing "done for those who profeffed the art "of difputation, had only a set of ora"tions compofed, and of arguments, and

of captious queftions, which might fuit r many occafions. These their scholars "foon learned, and fitted to the occafion. This was not to teach you the art, but to furnish you with the materials pro"duced by the art: as if a man profef

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fing to teach you the art of making

fhoes, fhould bring you a parcel of "fhoes of various fizes and fhapes, from " which you may provide those who want. "This may have its ufe; but it is not to "teach the art of making fhoes, And indeed, with regard to rhetorical de

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clamation, there are many precepts "handed down from ancient times; but "with regard to the construction of syl"logifms, not one.

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"We have therefore employed much "time and labour upon this fubject; and "if our system appear to you not to be “in the number of those things, which, being before carried a certain length, were left to be perfected; we hope for your favourable acceptance of what is done, and your indulgence in what is “left imperfect.”

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Reflections on the Utility of Logic, and the Means of its improvement. eng asin & Aes 1.8

SECT. 1. Of the Utility of Logiaft
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MEN rarely leave one extreme without running into the contrary. It is no wonder, therefore, that the exceffive admiration of Ariftotle, which continued for Portsmɔ 2

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fo many ages, fhould end in an undue contempt; and that the high esteem of logic as the grand engine of fcience, fhould at last make way for too unfavourable an opinion, which feems now prevalent, of its being unworthy of a place in a liberal education. Those who think according to the fashion, as the greatest part of men do, will be as prone to go into this extreme, as their grandfathers were to go into the contrary.

Laying afide prejudice, whether fashionable or unfashionable, let us confider whether logic is, or may be made, fubfervient to any good purpose. Its profeffed end is, to teach men to think, to judge, and to reason, with precision and accuracy. No man will fay that this is a matter of no importance; the only thing therefore that admits of doubt, is, whether it can be taught.

To refolve this doubt, it may be obferved, that our rational faculty is the gift of God, given to men in very different meafure. Some have a large portion, fome a lefs; and where there is a remarkable defect of the natural power, it cannot be fupplied by any culture. But this natural

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power

power, even where it is the ftrongest, may lie dead for want of the means of improvement: a favage may have been born with as good faculties as a Bacon or a Newton: but his talent was buried, being never put to ufe; while theirs was cultivated to the beft advantage.

It may likewife be obferved, that the chief mean of improving our rational power, is the vigorous exercise of it, in various ways and in different fubjects, by which the habit is acquired of exercising it properly. Without fuch exercife, and good fenfe over and above, a man who has studied logic all his life, may after all be only a petulant wrangler, without true judgement or skill of reafoning in any fci

ence.

I take this to be Locke's meaning, when in his Thoughts on Education he says, "If you would have your fon to reafon "well, let him read Chillingworth." The state of things is much altered fince Locke wrote. Logic has been much improved, chiefly by his writings; and yet much lefs ftrefs is laid upon it, and lefs time confumed in it. His counfel, therefore, was judicious and feafonable; to wit, VOL. III. That

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That the improvement of our reafoning power is to be expected much more from an intimate acquaintance with the authors. who reafon the best, than from studying voluminous systems of logic, But if he had meant, that the study of logic was of no use nor deferved any attention, he furely would not have taken the pains to have made fo confiderable an addition to it, by his Effay on the Human Understanding, and by his Thoughts on the Conduct of the Understanding. Nor would he have remitted his pupil to Chillingworth, the acutest logician as well as the beft reafoner of his age; and one who, in innumerable places of his excellent book, without pedantry even in that pedantic age, makes the happieft application of the rules of logic, for unraveling the fophiftical reafoning of his antagonist.

Our reafoning power makes no appearance in infancy; but as we grow up, it unfolds itfelf by degrees, like the bud of a tree. When a child firft draws an inference, or perceives the force of an inference drawn by another, we may call this the birth of his reafon: but it is yet like a new-born babe, weak and tender; it must

be

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