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CHAP. V.

Of the KINDS of Truth, and the RULE of REASON.

'ROM the view that has been taken of

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TRUTH IN GENERAL and the relation which it bears to the INTELLECT, the WILL and the IMAGINATION, the three great provinces of the human MIND, and of its GENERAL PRINCIPLES, PRIMARY and SECONDARY, from which ALL REASONING divides into two direct METHODS, the INDUCTIVE and the SYLLOGISTIC, affifted by a third which is the ANALOGIC, let us defcend to the confideration of PARTICULAR PRINCIPLES, their correspondent METHOD OF REASONING, and the KINDS of Truth in which they terminate.

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That TRUTH which we have been hitherto confidering in the grofs, like every thing in the univerfe, will be found, upon a nearer inspection, to vary its features, to affume a particular complexion, and to take a Special form, according to the different nature of its MEANS, which are all thofe various Subftances and Subjects of the universe, both of Mind and Body, from which its particular Principles and grounds of judgment are fupplied."

And, as we have obferved the general Method of Reasoning, to differ with the general divifion of Principles; fo we may reasonably expect to find all these PARTICULAR PRINCIPLES, as they fhoot out from the common stock into all the Arts and Sciences, and give life to every branch of the tree of knowledge, demanding a different fort of

* Αἱ ἀρχαὶ καὶ τὰ αἴτια ζητεῖται τῶν ὄντων· δῆλον δὲ ὅτι ἡ ὄντα. Εςι γάρ η τι αἴτιον υγιείας καὶ εὐεξίας. Καὶ τῶν μαθηματικῶν εἰσιν ἀρχαὶ καὶ σοιχεῖα, καὶ αἴτια. Καὶ ὅλως δὲ πᾶσα ἐπισήμη διανοητική, ἢ καὶ μετέχεσά το διανοίας, περὶ αἰτίας καὶ ἀρχὰς ἐςιν, ἢ ἀκριβετέρας, ή απ πλεςέρας· ἀλλὰ πᾶσαι αὗται περὶ ἕν τι, καὶ γένος τὶ πε ριγραψάμεναι, περὶ τότε πραγματεύονται. Ariftot. Me taph. lib. vi. cap. 1.

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PROOF OF EVIDENCE, and a METHOD OF REASONING appropriated to themselves."

And, what is of ftill higher importance, we shall fee all thefe different Principles fo differently conducted terminating in different KINDS of Truth poffeffed of many DEGREES OF EVIDENCE AND CONVICTION as we fee the fruits of the harvest or of the vintage differing from each other both in fhape and quality, according to the different Seeds from which they fpring, and to the different mode of their Cultivation.

And here we may contemplate with admiration and not without advantage, that amazing fimilitude, that univerfal harmony, and exact proportion, which, in the midst of wonderful variety, pervade the mental and material systems; by which a clear and resplendent ray of light is reflected from the one part upon the other, however distant and

TO

Αἱ μὲν αἰσθήσει ποιήσασαι αὐτὸ δῆλον, αἱ δ ̓ ὑπόθεσιν λαβῆσαι τὸ τί ἐσιν, ὅτω τὰ καθ ̓ αὐτὰ ὑπάρχοντα τῷ γένει περὶ ὅ εἰσιν, ἀποδεικνύεσιν ἢ ἀνα[καιότερον ἢ μαλακώτερον. Ariftot. Metaph. lib. vi. cap. I.

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distinct, and even independent of each other, they may seem to be.

"And God faid Let there be light, and "there was light.""" And God said Let "the earth bring forth grafs, the herb yield"ing feed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit, "whofe feed is in itfelf, after its kind upon "the earth; and it was fo."" In all his works, however different they may be, he is uniform in operation and confiftent with himself; and this mandate of the Deity giving law to the various kinds or productions of his Vegetable kingdom may be confidered, from the analogy of things, as extending to those of his Intellectual. We may confider the feveral KINDS of Truth with which the world is replenished as fpringing from feeds or Principles of their own and which they poffefs within themselves, ripening, when matured by proper cultivation, into every fpecies of knowledge, human and divine, producing that exact Certainty or Probability of which they are naturally capable, and terminating in those fe

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veral degrees of Conviction and Affent which are shaped and proportioned to themselves.

This mode of illuftrating mental operations and affections by the analogy of vegetable productions was employed by ONE, whofe method, as it was on all occafions the apteft and most familiar, may be imitated with advantage, and whofe example, as it was in all things the model of perfection, may be followed without referve. "Ye fhall "know them by their fruits. Do men ga"ther grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? "Even fo every good tree bringeth forth

good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth "forth evil fruit." This mode of reasoning is at once fimple and energetic; and, by reverfing the analogy we may fay, that, as to expect a produce of Wheat from the feed and cultivation of Barley, or the fruit of the Olive-tree from the plant and culture of the Vine, would, in common life, be marked as an abfurdity akin to madnefs: fo to fuppofe that Truths from different Principles and deduced in a different way will refult

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