Select Books on Chemistry.

Parkinson's Chemical Pocket Book, 12mo. Parkes' Chemical Catechism, 8vo. an excellent elementary work, to which this chapter is indebted. Conversations on Chemistry, 2 vols. 12mo. Accum's Chemistry, 2 vols. 8vo. Dr. Thomson's Elements of Chemistry, 8vo. Nicholson's Dictionary of Chemistry, 8vo. Dr. Henry's Epitome of Chemistry, 8vo. Those who may have leisure or inclination to study this science at large, may successfully prosecute their studies in Dr. Thomson's System of Chemistry, 4 vols. 8vc. or Mr. Murray's System of Chemistry, 4 vols. 8vo. and Appendix. Davy's Elements of Chemical Philosophy svo.

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PART VIII-hilosophy, Sciences, and Arts.

CHAP. I.-METAPHYSICS OR ONTOLOGY.

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1. THE mode in which authors have treated of metaphysics, is as various as their definition of the term. author, under the form of a treatise of metaphysics, presents us with a discussion on abstract words, their meaning and application; another, with an inquiry into the faculties and operations of the human mind; a third, with a volume of theology, a dissertation on the being and attributes of God, and the nature of spiritual and celestial intelligences; and a fourth, with a treatise of ethics or moral philosophy. Yet subtle, indefinite, and evasive, as this science seems to be, there are some subjects which the learned have agreed in calling metaphysical: such were the discussion between. Clarke and Leibnitz concerning the free agency of man ;-~ the disputes concerning identity and diversity-and those upon the origin of evil. In Cudworth's Intellectual System, metaphysics are introduced with propriety and ability.. Not a single discovery seems to have been added to this science since the days of Plato.

2. Metaphysics has been defined by a writer deeply read. in ancient philosophy," the science of the principles and causes of all things existing." Hence it is that mind or intelligence, and especially the Supreme Intelligence, which is the cause of the universe, and of every thing which it contains, is the principal subject of this science.

3. Metaphysical Theology inquires into the existence of a God, makes the most rational supposition concerning his divine essence, and forms ideas of his attributes and. perfections. God manifests himself in every part of nature. In our reasonings on the necessity of such a being by

metaphysics we have only to descend from the most simple ideas, to the most compound, and from thence to re-ascend by a chain of reasonings, from the creature up to the author of the creature, and of all nature and we shall find that the result of all these operations of the mind will constantly be the necessity of the existence of a God: and we may at all times determine, though very imperfectly, from the weakness of our discernment, what that Supreme Being must be by positively determining what he cannot be.

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4. Metaphysics, therefore, while it concurs to furnish new proofs on this subject, or to elucidate and establish those which are already known, must prove of inestimable value to mankind. The word originated with Aristotle, who has termed a treatise which chiefly relates to the intellectual world, and which is placed after his physics, peтa тa Quoma. So that it may mean either something" beyond physics," or merely an appendix to his physics" or natural hi tory. 5. The Cartesian Philosophy was so called from Des Cartes, the founder. By introducing geometry into physics, and accounting for natural phenomena from the laws of mechanics, he did infinite service to philosophy, and contributed to free it from that rust, which during a long succession of ages it had contracted. To him, in some measure, is owing the present system of mechanical, and even Newtonian philosophy. Des Cartes was a native of

Bretagne, and born in the year 1596.

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6. Malebranchism is the doctrine of father Malebranche, a priest of the oratory of France. Malebranchism is contained in his Enquiry after Truth.' M. Fontenelle says, that it is full of God; that God is the only agent, and that too in the strictest sense; all power of acting, all nations belong immediately to him, &c. The manner in which Malebranche would reconcile religion to his system of philosophy is seen in his Entretiens Chrétiennes ; in which he proves the existence of God-the corruption of human nature by original sin-the necessity of a mediator, and of grace. His doctrine is, in other instances, ill-grounded, and even dangerous and subversive of religion. Upon the whole, Malebranchism is nearly the same with Cartesianism, and like that, has been opposed by many French authors, but by none so ably, as by our own countryman, Mr. Locke.

Select Books on Metaphysics.

Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding, 2 vols. 8vo. and his Conduct of the Understanding, 12mo. Dr. Beattie's Essay on Truth, Dr. Reid's Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man, svo. Stewart's Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind, 8vo.

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CHAP. II.-LOGIC.

1. LOGIC is the art of reasoning.

In order to reason

well, it is necessary that the nature of our perceptions and ideas, and the notions or conclusions we draw from them, should be well understood. Logic, therefore, is a science of extensive occupation; which has its beginning in the constitution of things, and the processes of the hu man intellect, and its practical termination in the structure, use, and application of language. Its objects are no less than the universal acquisition of knowledge, and that mutual communication which constitutes a large part of the employment, and is the most distinguishing character of

man.

2. All our knowledge is contained in propositions, and every proposition consists of three parts. Thus in the proposition, "Snow is white," there are three parts or terms, snow, which is called the subject; is, which is called the copula; and white, which is called the predicate. If the proposition agree with the nature of things it is true, if not it is false. All propositions are reducible to this form, though both the subject and predicate may be expressed by many words; but the copula will always be some inflexion of the verb to be, with the word not if the proposition be negative.

3. Propositions which contain either a plurality of predicates or of subjects, or which manifest a compounded nature in either, have been called compound propositions. In the first, however, the proposition seems merely to be a number of propositions conjoined, &c.; in the latter, the form of words may be considered as forming a definition of the words or terms. Thus, "John and Thomas departed,” includes the propositions," John was departing, and Thomas was departing." And again the proposition, "Water frozen in flakes as it falls from the atmosphere

is coloured like the powder of pure dry salt," is evidently the same proposition as was first given, excepting that it contains a definition of the word snow taken from its formation, and of the word whiteness from a substance of which it is one of the modes.

4. Our limits will not permit us to enter into the form of propositions from which they are denominated copulative, casual, relative, or disjunctive or modal; as where a proposition itself becomes the subject, or positive, or nega tive, and so forth. These distinctions are in few cases useful, and in many tedious, trifling, and deceptive.

5. Truth is determined either intuitively; as when the relation between the predicate and its subject is immediately seen and admitted. So "the whole is equal to all its parts:"-and these simple truths are called axioms:

6. Or else it is determined demonstratively; so the proposition, "the opposite angles made by right lines crossing each other are equal," is not intuitive, but requires to be demonstrated by a succession of axioms connected together:

7. Or lastly it is determined analogically; upon the probability that what has happened will, in like circumstances, happen again. Thus, upon the probability that bodies will continue to fall to the ground; that violent motion will be followed by heat; that similar inducements or motives will be followed by similar acts in men: we found the doctrine of cause and effect, and establish our knowledge of physical and moral history, so as to give credit to the past, and confidence, in many respects, to the future.

8. It is evident that analogical propositions have much less certainty than those of intuition or demonstration.

9. Though in our investigation of truth we must necessarily have recourse to observations of individual objects and events, as the ground-work of all; yet in our inductions, reasonings, proofs, and processes of instruction, we proceed from generals to individuals. And, as in strict demonstration the subject and predicate of a proposition are connected by a train of axioms,- -so in every other argumentation it will be the endeavour of a wise man to follow the same course as nearly as may be possible. But, from the confusion arising from the relations of the com