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ciples,) are mentioned by the fame livthe EVIDENCE OF

ing author to be

EXTERNAL SENSE; the EVIDENCE OF INTERNAL SENSE or CONSCIOUSNESS; the EVIDENCE OF MEMORY, and fome

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This general divifion of PRINCIPLES into PRIMARY and SECONDARY, ORIGINAL and DERIVED, EVIDENCES and AXIOMS, let the diftinction be made in what terms you will, however novel it may found, is, I hope, philofophically made and, f fo, it will be found of great importance in the fearch of Truth in general, as it will divide our REASONING, which should always be governed by the Principles, into two direct kinds or methods.

Beattie's Effay on Truth, p. 43.

1 These original Evidences are acknowledged by Ariftotle in b. ii. chap. 19. of the Poft. Analyt. as the genuine foundation from which all Axioms are derived: and though he chooses to referve an equal honour to the latter, he allows the former to be necessary to their exiftence. Ανάγκη ἄρα ἔχειν μὲν τίνα δύναμιν, μὴ τοιαύτην δ ̓ ἔχειν, ἢ ἐςι τέτων τιμιωτέρα κατ' ακρίβειαν— δυναμιν σύμφυτον κριτικὴν, ἣν καλᾶσιν ΑΙΣΘΗΣΙΝ &c.

CHA P.

A

CHAP. IV.

Of REASON in general.

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LL TRUTH, to whatever Province or department of MIND it bears a reference, is deduced from PRINCIPLES by an act of REASON, the faculty which is common to them all, and which is diftinguishing prerogative of human nature.

It is obferved by the excellent Lord Bacon in his Advancement of Learning, that foundness of Direction in the application of the means takes away error and confufion, and is the principal of those general expedients, by which every work is to be fuccefsfully conducted. •

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• Merito primas tenet, Confilii prudentia et fanitas; hoc eft, monftratio et delineatio viæ recta et proclivis ad

rem

1

To execute a work in the line of his profeffion with competent ability, the Artist not only understands the power and compass of his Inftrument; but the particular, manner in which, according to the nature of his materials and the progrefs of the work, it is to be employed. And it is of equal moment to the Philosopher to know the general power and compass of REASON, the Inftrument of Truth; and also the particular method in which it is to be applied on different fubjects, and in different ftages of the investigation because the want of a just attention to thefe fundamentals of found LOGIC has often mifled the Reafoner, increafed his labour, and difgraced his learning.

A falfe estimate of REASON heightened, as it has often been, into a wild conceit of

sem quæ proponitur, peragendam. Claudus enim (quod dici folet) in via, antevertit curforem extra viam: Et Solomon perappofite ad hanc rem: Ferrum fi retufum fuerit, viribus utendum majoribus: quod vero fuper omnia prævalet, eft fapientia. Quibus verbis innuit, medii prudentem electionem efficacius conducere ad rem, quam virium aut intentionem aut accumulationem. De Augm. Sc. lib. ii.

its all-fufficiency, and that it is itself the Caufe and the Standard of all Truth, is a fatal rock by which many adventurers in philofophy have either fuffered shipwreck before they were well embarked, or else have been thrown out of the direct road, and left to the mercy of the waves to be toffed upon a tempestuous fea, by every blast of doctrine, into all the harbours round the world except the right one. Suppofing that from its own underived refources, by acting and reacting upon itself, REASON can discover all truth of confequence to man, they totally mistake both its Nature and Office; as it is neither the original Cause, nor the Standard, of Truth.

So far from being the Cause of Truth, it cannot penetrate into, or even apprehend, the Effence or Subftances of things corporeal or mental. It can only pass over their furface to take account of their Qualities, Powers, Properties, Operations and Af

Internas fubftantias nullo fenfu, nulla actione reflexa cognofcimus. Newtoni Sch. Gen. fub fine Princip. fections,

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fections, which are the Caufes: and that not directly and of itself, but by the help of fuch Evidence as nature has supplied, which is the Standard of Truth.

REASON confifts of Perception and Judgment, and operates by Comparison: and its Office is to judge of EVIDENCES, to form and to apply Axioмs, and to trace SIMILITUDES; fo that it is properly the INSTRUMENT of Truth. And, in the execution of its office, it acts liberally and impartially, when not perverted and abused, accommodating its METHOD and operation to the Principles and to the nature of the Subject, whatever they may be, upon which it is employed.

SECT I.

Of the INDUCTIVE Method. x

VERY thing in the universe, whether

EVE

of Mind or Body, prefents itself to our observation, however mixed with others, in its individual ftate: fo that PERCEPTION & Su Reid in the Mad. Op. B. sect. 24 and

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