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how numerous are the species of moral action in which he is capable of being employed? And it is no mean honour which is due to the Science in contemplation, and to the Logic which it employs, that, when they are well adjusted and arranged into general and lefs general claffes, with their appropriated names and characters, as thofe of particular Duties and Sins, Virtues and Vices, the nature of each particular action, with the correspondent proportion of praise or blame, reward or punishment, may be determined with a philofophical exactness and precision.

After the Axioms are once founded, it only remains to apply particular Actions to them as to general Rules, the truth of which they will, in general, eafily determine. This is, however, fometimes an act of nice judgment and acute difcrimination. The difficulty arifes, partly in felecting the right Rule to which the action belongs, out of many others fimilar and nearly akin; but chiefly in accurately diftingushing the Action, which varies its moral feature with the circumstances attending it, infomuch

infomuch that cafes fometimes occur fo fingular and special, that no rule has yet been formed to which they can be applied.

And, when the General Propofitions happen to lie at a confiderable distance from the particular cafes to be proved by them, fo that the reasoner has to afcend through a range of mediate Propofitions, SYLLOGISTIC REASONING may have its ufe: but, if the invention of the truth be his only object, he will find it in the courfe of a very few fyllogifms, and without the parade of a long-winded difputation. For their private amusement, indeed, men may fyllogize as much as they please, if they do not annoy the public: but they will do Inductive Reasoning the justice to allow, that, till general ideas are formed, there can be no Definition,' and, of course no Syllogifm; and, when they are formed, whether their Definitions are good, and their Syllogifms conclufive, does not at all depend upon themselves, but upon the

* Ορίσμος ἐκ γένες καὶ διάφερών ἐσιν. Ariftot. Top. lib. i. cap. 8.

foundness

foundness of the Induction by which they

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OF Inductive and Syllogiftic Reasoning, therefore, in Ethical as well as in Phyfical, and indeed in all other subjects, excepting Mathematical, of how much more true and logical ufe is the former found? Induction, proceeding on experience and practice, how

Etiam dubitabit quifpiam potius quam objiciet; utrum nos de naturali tantum philofophia, an etiam de fcientiis reliquis, logicis, politicis, fecundum viam noftram perficiendis, loquamur. At nos certe de univerfis hæc, quæ dicta funt intelligimus: Atque quemadmodum vulgaris logica, quæ regit res per fyllogifmum, non tantum ad naturales, fed ad omnes fcientias pertinet; ita et noftra, quæ procedit per inductionem, omnia complectitur. Tam enim hiftoriam et tabulas inveniendi conficimus de ira, metu et verecundia, et fimilibus; ac etiam de exemplis rerum civilium: nec minus de motibus mentalibus memoriæ, compofitionis et divifionis, judicii, et reliquorum; quam de calido et frigido, aut luce, aut vegetatione, aut fimilibus. Sed tamen cum noftra ratio interpretandi, poft hiftoriam præparatam et ordinatam, non mentis tantum motus et difcurfus, (ut logica vulgaris) fed et rerum naturam intueatur ; ita mentem regimus, ut ad rerum naturam fe, aptis per omnia modis, applicare poffit. Atque propterea multa et diverfa in doctrina interpretationis præcipimus, quæ ad subjecti, de quo inquirimus, qualitatem et conditionem, modum inveniendi nonnulla ex parte applicent. Baconi Nov. Org. lib. 1.

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ever flow in operation, is fure in its effect. Syllogifm, proceeding, in its common use, on fpeculative, vague, and ill-founded axioms, however ready, is fallacious; and has produced no other effect, than that of filling many an useless and unwieldy volume with loads of egregious lumber. The moral treatifes,' fays our great reformer, which are not feafoned with experience, but are drawn only from a general and fcholaftic notion of things are, as touching fuch matters, for most part, idle and fruitlefs difcourfes..

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* Eximie hoc atque veriffime Afranius poëta de gignenda comparandaque fapientia opinatus eft, quod eam filiam effe Ufus et Memoriæ dixit. Eo namque argumento demonftrat, qui fapiens effe rerum humanarum velit, non libris folis, neque difciplinis rhetoricis dialecticifque opus effe; fed oportere eum verfari quoque exercerique in rebus communibus nofcendis periclitandifque: eaque omnia acta et eventa firmiter meminiffe; et proinde fapere ac confulere ex his, quæ pericula ipfa rerum docuerint, non quæ libri tantum aut magiftri per quafdam inanitates verborum et imaginum, tanquam in mimo aut fomnio delectaverint. Verfus Afranii funt in Togata, cui Sellæ nomen eft:

Ufus me genuit, mater peperit Memoria

Zogíav vocant me Graii, vos Sapientiam.

Item verfus eft in eandem ferme fententiam Pacuvii, quem Macedo Philofophus, vir bonus, familiaris meus, fcribi debere cenfebat pro foribus omnium templorum. A. Gellius, lib. xiii. cap. 8.

Ego

For the labours of fpeculative men, in active matters, do seem to men of experience little better than the difcourfes of Phormio appeared to Hannibal, who efteemed them • but as dreams and dotage."'

Ego odi homines ignava opera et philofopha fententia.` Nihil enim fieri poffe indignius neque intolerantius dicebat, quam quod homines ignavi ac defides, operti barba et pallio, mores et emolumenta philofophiæ in linguæ verborumque artes converterent; et vitia facundiffime accufarent intercutibus ipfi vitiis madentes. A. Gellius, lib. xiii. cap. 8.

Tractatus autem, qui experientiam non fapiunt, fed ex notitia rerum generali et fcholaftica tantummodo deprompti funt, de rebus hujufmodi inanes plerumque evadunt et inutiles. Quamvis enim aliquando contingat, fpectatorem ea animadvertere, quæ luforem fugiant; atque jactetur proverbium quoddam magis audaculum, quam fanum, de cenfura vulgi circa actiones principum, ftantem in valle optime perluftrare montem; optandum tamen imprimis effet, ut non nifi expertiffimus et verfatiffimus quifque fe hujufmodi argumentis immifceret. Hominum enim fpeculativorum, in materiis activis, lucubrationes, iis, qui in agendo fuerint exercitati, nihilo meliores videntur, quam differtationes Phormionis de bellis æftimatæ funt ab Hannibale, qui eas habuit pro fomniis et deliriis. Baconus De Augm. Sc. lib. vii. cap. 2.

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