practical advantages in our daily life. It is necessary for a man that he should be prepared to take part in the conflict of opinion that is constantly going on in the world; and these occasional argumentative contests prepare him for this work." "The power of accustoming ourselves to discuss the opinions of others, becomes a habit of the greatest advantage to society; it prevents the taking upon trust new opinions, or the pinning our faith to any, however prevalent they may be; and it promotes that spirit of inquiry into the rationality of an opinion that must tend very considerably to augment the predominance of truth among men, and to aid on their progress. The man who feels the power within himself which frequent discussion upon all matters moral and political will give him-who appreciates the much higher character of this power over other modes of influencing men's minds-will not be the man to apply to the legislature of his country for acts to coerce the opinions of his fellow-man, or to legalise and support his own views, by this course seeking to bring discredit and ruin upon the opinions of others; nor will he be the man to raise the standard of rebellion, making violence the arbitrator between truth and error; but ever struggling on, eager in the promulgation of his convictions, ever preparing and ever using the weapons mind places at his disposal, he will in this way, and in no other, seek to make his opinions prevail around him. These Institutions, in affording scope for the necessary inquiries, and for the preparation necessary to the culture of this reliance upon the power of argument, and the continual progress of truth, put forward great claims to the support and attention of society. They are the schools, and they might be made more effectual schools, for the preparation required for taking part in the active duties and struggles of the world. Within their walls there is much of the information, order, and propriety of arrangements acquired, which fit a man for taking part in public business, to the advantage of the society of which he is a member."-Institutional Education. 6. To form a habit of reasoning, attend to the discipline of your own mind with regard to its moral principles and dispositions. The cultivation of the moral feelings improves the intellectual faculties. A sound heart is less likely to go astray than a clever head. "The entrance of thy words giveth light, it giveth understanding to the simple." On this subject we shall be content to quote from two authors -not theologians-who have written on very different subjects. Mr. Taylor, of the Colonial Office, thus writes in his work entitled "The Statesman: "If there be in the character not only sense and soundness, but virtue of a high order, then, however little appearance there may be of talent, a certain portion of wisdom may be relied upon almost implicitly. For the correspondencies of wisdom and goodness are manifold; and that they will accompany each other is to be inferred, not only because men's wisdom makes them good, but also because their goodness makes them wise. Questions of right and wrong are a perpetual exercise of the faculties of those who are solicitous as to the right and wrong of what they do and see; and a deep interest of the heart in these questions carries with it a deeper cultivation of the understanding than can be easily effected by any other excitement to intellectual activity. Although, therefore, simple goodness does not imply every sort of wisdom, it unerringly implies some essential conditions of wisdom; it implies a negative on folly, and an exercised judgment within such limits as nature shall have prescribed to the capacity. And where virtue and extent of capacity are combined, there is implied the highest wisdom, being that which includes the worldly wisdom with the spiritual."-The Statesman. Mr. Blakey, who is now the Professor of Logic and Metaphysics in the Queen's College, Belfast, writes as follows: "I am fully convinced that there is a much closer connexiou between mental superiority, and a belief in the Scriptures, than is commonly imagined. Sceptical modes of thinking have a direct and natural tendency to beget a captious, quibbling, sophistical, habit; to create and foster literary arrogance and conceit; to destroy whatever is candid and ingenuous in controversial warfare; to make the mind diminutive, rickety, and distorted; and to induce men to set a higher value on crotchety sophisms than on the inspirations of real wisdom and science. On the other hand, where the Scriptures are embraced with that sincerity, heartiness, and singleness of mind, to which their manifest importance so justly entitles them, we will perceive a comprehensiveness, a vigour, and elasticity given to our minds, which cannot fail to place us on the vantage ground, whatever branch of knowledge we may choose to cultivate, or to excel in. The mind, no longer groping its way through the hazy and murky atmosphere of doubt and uncertainty, advances with a firm and confident step, under the bright and irradiating influence of the sun of truth. By the contemplation of whatever is grand and sublime in doctrine, and pure and simple in precept, our minds are naturally led, by our established constitution, to spread themselves into a wider compass; to improve their various powers or faculties, by giving them an enlarged sphere of action; to dwell upon what is great, noble, and excellent to pursue our course with freedom and boldness, unencumbered with babbling sophistries, and cheered with the consolatory reflection, that we are engaged in promoting whatever is esteemed among mankind fair, honourable, and praiseworthy." -Blakey's History of Moral Science. And now, gentle reader, I have finished my book upon the Art of Reasoning. But as there is an intimate connexion between reasoning and speaking, I shall add an Appendix on the Philosophy of Language. This appendix is the substance of a lecture I delivered in November, 1832, before the Waterford Literary and Scientific Institution. After you have read it, I advise you to read the index, as this will recal to your mind the principal topics discussed in the body of the work. You may then place the book in the hands of your children, or of your younger brothers and sisters. But before you do this, you had better read it a second time, and mark with a pencil those parts best adapted for their first reading. You will, perhaps, think that they may commit to memory the leading paragraphs in the second and third parts, in the same way that they have learned at school the first principles of grammar and geography; and that the other parts of the work may be divided into Lessons in Reading. Young men may form themselves into classes, and read a section at each of their meetings, and every member might, from his own reading, occupation, or profession, give an additional illustration of the rules propounded in the section. In this way they might train their minds into an accurate mode of thinking and of reasoning without encumbering themselves with the technicalities and subtilities of scholastic logic. They who desire nothing more than useful amusement, may skip the rules, and read the illustrations. These, in the language of a Reviewer, form "a collection of Elegant Extracts." APPENDIX. THE PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE. PHILOSOPHERS have given various definitions of Man. These definitions have been founded on the circumstances by which he is chiefly distinguished from other animals. By some he is styled a rational animal-being endowed with reason. Though several of the inferior animals, such as dogs, horses, and elephants, discover great sagacity in particular circumstances, yet none seem to be endowed with that faculty which we style reason-the power of reflecting-of comparing ideas-of drawing inferences, and of tracing consequences. The instinct which they possess is sufficient for the station which Providence has assigned to them in this lower world. It rises at once to maturity, and is not, like the reason of men, developed by slow and imperceptible degrees. While instinct thus rises rapidly to maturity, it never surpasses a certain point. Reason seems capable of an indefinite degree of improvement. The arts and sciences are progressive through succeeding generations—where one ends another begins. But instinct makes no improvement. A bird of the nineteenth century will build his nest in the same way as a bird that lived two thousand years ago, and build it, too, without any previous instruction, and without having seen a single nest constructed. Man has been defined a religious animal. No other animal that we are aware of has any sense of religion. They have no consciousness that they are indebted for their existence to the power of a superior being-no sense of obligation to him-no anticipation of their own death; of course they have no assemblies for religious worship-they perform no act of devotion-their conduct cannot be influenced by a fear of punishment or a hope of reward in a future state of existence. It is true, they have some dispositions which, among mankind, are deemed moral qualities. They are more temperate than men; they possess attachment for their offspring, and are free from that ambition and avarice which are the great sources of human vices: but these dispositions being conferred by nature, and not regulated by considerations of duty or propriety, ought more properly to be termed instincts than moral qualities. Man has been defined a political animal, as men only are found to associate in a political society. The inferior animals seem to have no notion of the advantages to be derived from a division of labour; each animal provides its own food, makes its own nest, and performs everything for itself. Nor do we find among them any class who devote themselves to the service of the community, and who, consequently, are supported by the labour of others. They have no lawyers, no judges, no magistrates, to adjust their disputes; no professors to impart knowledge; no physicians to heal the sick. There are a few cases in which animals live in society: such are the bees, who live under a monarchy, even in North America; and even in France and Germany, where the salic law is in force, their monarch is always a female. Man has been defined a cooking animal, because he alone cooks his food before he eats it. The bird eats the worm without either roasting or boiling it; and all animals eat their food, whether it be animal or vegetable, in the state in which it is produced. But nearly all the food of man first undergoes an artificial preparation; fruits and salads are the chief things he eats raw. Nor does man, like the other animals, confine his beverage to the pure water of the spring, but has recourse to infusions and distillations, in order to render his drink more palatable or more potent. Man has been defined a tool-making animal. Whatever other animals perform, whether they collect their food, or construct their habitation, they use only those instruments with which nature has endowed them; but man looks about for tools, and constructs machines. By these means he increases his power, and effects his objects better and more rapidly than he could otherwise do. Man has been defined a pugnacious animal; that is,—he alone in contending against his enemies employs artificial weapons. When the other animals fight, they use only the weapons which nature has given them; it is by their horns, their teeth, their claws, or their poison, that they assail their foes. But man has put every part of nature under contribution to supply him with weapons of destruction. He has depopulated forests, and drawn iron from the mine, and compelled chemistry to furnish materials by which he might more effectually destroy his fellowcreatures : "Oh shame to man! Devil with devil damn'd firm concord holds; This definition, however, is said to be not strictly correct, as several tribes of monkeys are known to use sticks and branches of trees in contending against each other. If, however, this distinction is not peculiar to man, we have the consolation to reflect that it is not shared with us by any but monkeys. Man has been defined a laughing animal. Though all animals |