**************** THE ELEMENTS OF LOGIСК. 000000000000000000000000000000 300000000000000 400000000 INTRODUCTΙΟΝ. F all the human Sciences, that con- rounded with a Variety of Objects; we have Powers and Faculties fitted to deal with them, and are happy or miferable in Proportion as we know how to frame a right Judgement of Things, and shape our Actions agreeably to the Circumftances in which we are placed. No Study therefore is more important than that which introduces us to the Knowledge of ourselves. Hereby we become acquainted with the Extent and Capacity of the human Mind; and learning to diftinguish what Objects it is suited to, and in what Marmer it muft proceed, in order to compass its End, we arrive by Degrees at that Justness and Truth of Understanding, which is the great Perfection of a rational Being. II. If we look attentively into Things, and Different furvey them in their full Extent, we fee them Gradations rifing one above another in various Degrees of of Perfections Eminence. Among the inanimate Parts of Mat- in Things. ter, some exhibit nothing worthy our Attention; their Parts feem as it were jumbled together by mere Chance, VOL. II. B nor nor can we discover any Beauty, Order, or Regularity in their Composition. In others we difcern the finest Ar rangement, and a certain Elegance of Contexture, that makes us affix to them a Notion of Worth and Excellence. Thus Metals, and precipus Stones, are conceived as far furpaffing those unformed Masses of Earth that lie every where exposed to View. If we trace Nature onward, and pursue her through the vegetable and animal Kingdoms, we find her still mul tiplying her Perfections, and rifing, by a juft Gradation, from mere Mechanism to Perception, and from Perception in all its various Degrees to Reafon and Understanding. Usefulness of III. BUT though Reason be the Boundary by Culture, and which Man is distinguished from the other Creaparticularly tures that furround him, yet we are far from of the Study finding it the fame in all. Nor is this Inequality of Logick. to be wholly ascribed to the original Make of Men's Minds, or the Difference of their natural Endowments. For if we look abroad into the several Nations of the World, some are over-run with Ignorance and Barbarity, others flourish in Learning and the Sciences; and what is yet more remarkable, the fame People have, in different Ages, been diftinguished by these very opposite Characters. It is there-fore by Culture, and a due Application of the Powers of our Minds, that we increase their Capacity, and carry human Reason to Perfection. Where this Method is followed, Knowledge and Strength of Understanding never fail to enfue; where it is neglected, we remain ignorant of our own Worth: and those latent Qualities of the Soul, by which she is fitted to survey this vast Fabrick of the World, to scan the Heavens, and fearch into the Causes of Things, lie buried in Darkness and Obscurity. No Part of Knowledge therefore yields a fairer Prospect of Improvement, than that which takes Account of the Understanding, examines its Powers and Faculties, and shews the Ways by which it comes to attain its various Notions of Things. This is properly the Design of Logick, which may be justly stiled the History of the human Mind, inasmuch as it traces the Progress of our Knowledge, from our first and fimple Perceptions through all their different Combinations, and all those numerous Deductions that result from varioufly comparing one with another. It is thus that we are let into the natural Frame and Contexture of our own Minds, and learn in what Manner we ought to conduct our Thoughts, in order to arrive at Truth, and avoid Error. We fee how to build one Difcovery upon another, and by preferving the Chain of 7 Reafon Reasonings uniform and unbroken, to purfue the Relations of Things through all their Labyrinths and Windings, and at length exhibit them to the View of the Soul, with all the Advantages of Light and Conviction. the Mind. IV. But as the Understanding, in advancing Operations of from one Part of Knowledge to another, proceeds by a just Gradation, and exerts various Acts, according to the different Progress it has made, Logicians have been careful to note these several Steps, and have diftinguished them in their Writings by the Name of the Operations of the Mind. These they make four in Number; and agreeably to that, have divided the whole System of Logick into four Parts, in which these Acts are severally explained, and the Conduct and Procedure of the Mind, in its different Stages of Improvement, regulated by proper Rules and Observations. Now, in order to judge how far Logicians have followed Nature in this Distinction of the Power of the Understanding, let us take a short View of the Mind, and the Manner of its Progress, according to the Experience we have of it in ourselves, and fee whither the Chain of our own Thoughts will without Constraint lead us. V. FIRST then, We find ourselves furround ed with a Variety of Objects, which, acting dif- Perception. ferently upon our Senfes, convey distinct Impressions into the Mind, and thereby rouze the Attention and Notice of the Understanding. By reflecting too on what paffes within us, we become sensible of the Operations of our own Minds, and attend to them as a new Set of Impressions. But in all this there is only bare Consciousness. The Mind, without proceeding any farther, takes Notice of the Impressions that are made upon it, and views Things in Order, as they present themselves one after another. This Attention of the Understanding to the Object acting upon it, whereby it becomes sensible of the Impressions they make, is called by Logicians Perception; and the Notices themselves, as they exist in the Mind, and are there treasured up to be the Materials of Thinking and Knowledge, are diftinguished by the Name of Ideas. Judgement. VI. BUT the Mind does not always rest satisfied in the bare View and Contemplation of its Ideas, It is of a more active and bufy Nature, and likes to be assembling them together, and comparing them one with another. In this complicated View of Things, it readily difcerns, that some agree, and others disagree, and joins or separates them according to this Perception. Thus, upon B2 comparing comparing the Idea of two added to two with the Idea of four, we at first Glance perceive their Agreement, and thereupon pronounce that two and two are equal to four. Again, that white is not black, that five is less than seven, are Truths to which we immediately affent, as foon as we compare those Ideas together. This is the first and fimplest Act of the Mind, in determining the Relations of Things, when, by a bare Attention to its own Ideas, comparing any two of them together, it can at once fee how far they are connected or disjoined. The Knowledge thence derived is called intuitive, as requiring no Pains or Examination; and the Act of the Mind assembling its Ideas together, and joining or difjoining them according to the Result of its Perceptions, is what Logicians term Judgement. VII. INTUITION affords the highest Degree of Reasoning. Certainty; it breaks in with an irrefistible Light upon the Understanding, and leaves no Room for Doubt or Hesitation. Could we in all Cafes,, by thus putting two Ideas together, difcern immediately their Agreement or Difagreement, we should be exempt from Error, and all its fatal Consequences. But it so happens, that many of our Ideas are of fuch a Nature, that they cannot be thus examined in Concert, or by any immediate Application one to another; and then it becomes necessary to find out fome other Ideas, that will admit of this Application, that by means of them we may discover the Agreement or Disagreement we search for. Thus the Mind wanting to know the Agreement or Difagreement in Extent, between two inclosed Fields, which it cannot so put together as to discover their Equality or Inequality by an immediate Comparison, cafts about for fome intermediate, Idea, which, by being applied first to the one, and then to the other, will discover the Relation it is in Quest of. Accordingly it assumes some stated Length, as a Yard, &c. and measuring the Fields, one after the other, comes by that Means to the Knowledge of the Agreement or Disagreement in Question. The intervening Ideas, made ufe of on these Occafions, are called Proofs; and the Exercise of the Mind in finding them out, and applying them for the Discovery of the Truths it is in Search of, is what we term Reasoning. And here let it be observed, that the Knowledge gained by Reasoning is a Deduction from our intuitive Perceptions, and ultimately founded on them. Thus in the Cafe before-mentioned, having found by measuring, that one of the Fields makes threescore square Yards, and the other only fifty-five, we thence conclude |