that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes. Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth. Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. If this man were not of God, he could do nothing."--John ix. 28–33.

"We know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him."-John iii. 2.

We shall conclude this section by a quotation from Archbishop Whately.

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Among the enemies of the Gospel now, are to be found men not only of learning and ingenuity, but of cultivated argumentative powers, and not unversed in the principles of Logic. If the advocates of our religion think proper to disregard this help, they will find, on careful inquiry, that their opponents do not. And let them not trust too carelessly to the strength of their cause: truth will, indeed, prevail, where all other points are nearly equal; but it may suffer a temporary discomfiture, if hasty assumptions, unsound arguments, and vague and empty declamation, occupy the place of a train of elose, accurate, and luminous reasoning. "It is not, however, solely or chiefly for polemical purposes that the cultivation of the reasoning faculty is desirable. In persuading, and investigating, in learning, or teaching,-in all the multitude of cases in which it is our object to arrive at just conclusions, or to lead others to them, it is most important. A knowledge of logical rules will not indeed supply the want of other knowledge; nor was it ever proposed, by any one who really understood this science, to substitute it for any other; but it is no less true that no other can be substituted for this: that it is valuable in every branch of study; and that it enables us to use the knowledge we possess to the greatest advantage."-Preface to Logic.

SECTION IV.

THE DISPOSITIONS NECESSARY TO THE ART OF REASONING.

To reason well we must avoid prejudices or pre-judgments -judgments formed before we begin to reason. Dr. Watts has a chapter on the doctrine of prejudices or springs of false judgments. He divides them into four classes-pre

judices arising from things, from words, from ourselves, and from others. We shall copy from that chapter, and from some other parts of his work, his observations on two dispositions, which those who wish to reason well ought to cultivate. We mean the love of truth, and a spirit of mental independence.

I. The love of truth :

"Search for evidence of truth with diligence and honesty, and be heartily ready to receive evidence, whether for agreement or disagreement of ideas.

"Search with diligence; spare no labour in searching for the truth in due proportion to the importance of the proposition. Read the best authors who have writ on that subject; consult your wise and learned friends in conversation; and be not unwilling to borrow hints toward your improvement from the meanest person, nor to receive any glimpse of light from the most unlearned. Diligence and humility is the way to thrive in the riches of the understanding, as well as in gold or silver. Search carefully for the evidence of truth, and dig for wisdom as for hid treasure.

Search with a steady honesty of soul, and a sincere impartiality to find the truth. Watch against every temptation that might bribe your judgment or warp it aside from truth. Do not indulge yourself to wish any unexamined proposition were true or false. A wish often perverts the judgment, and tempts the mind strangely to believe upon slight evidence whatsoever we wish to be true or false. . . .

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Keep your mind always open to receive truth, and never set limits to your own improvement. Be ready always to hear what may be objected even against your favourite opinions, and those which have had longer possession of your assent. And if there should be any new and uncontrollable evidence brought against these old or beloved sentiments, do not wink your eyes fast against the light, but part with anything for the sake of truth: remember when you overcome an error you gain truth; the victory is on your side, and the advantage is all your own....

In your whole course of reasoning keep your mind sincerely intent on the pursuit of truth; and follow solid argument wheresoever it leads you. Let not a party spirit, nor any passion or prejudice whatsoever, stop or avert the current of your reasoning in quest of true knowledge.

"When you are inquiring therefore into any subject, maintain a due regard to the arguments and objections on both sides of a question. Consider, compare, and balance them well, before you

determine for one side. It is a frequent, but a very faulty practice, to hunt after arguments only to make good one side of a question, and entirely to neglect and refuse those which favour the other side. If we have not given a due weight to arguments on both sides, we do but wilfully misguide our judgment, and abuse our reason, by forbidding its search after truth. When we espouse opinions by a secret bias on the mind, through the influences of fear, hope, honour, credit, interest, or any other prejudice, and then seek arguments only to support those opinions, we have neither done our duty to God nor to ourselves; and it is a matter of mere chance if we stumble upon truth in our way to ease and preferment. The power of reasoning was given us by our Maker for this very end, to pursue truth; and we abuse one of his richest gifts, if we basely yield it up to be led astray by any of the meaner powers of nature, or the perishing interests of this life. Reason itself, if honestly obeyed, will lead us to receive the divine revelation of the gospel, where it is duly proposed, and this will show us the path of life everlasting.”

II. The spirit of mental independence :—

1. Independence of mind implies exemption from the influence of authority :—

"To believe in all things as our predecessors did, is the ready way to keep mankind in an everlasting state of infancy, and to lay an eternal bar against all the improvements of our reason and our happiness. Had the present age of philosophers satisfied themselves with the substantial forms and occult qualities of Aristotle, with the solid spheres, eccentrics, and epicycles of Ptolemy, and the ancient astronomers; then the great Lord Bacon, Copernicus, and Descartes, with the greater Sir Isaac Newton, Mr. Locke, and Mr. Boyle, had risen in our world in vain. We must have blundered on still in successive generations among absurdities and thick darkness, and a hundred useful inventions for the happiness of human life had never been known..

"Besides, let us consider, that the great God, our common maker, has never given one man's understanding a legal and rightful sovereignty to determine truths for others, at least after they are past the state of childhood or minority. No single person, how learned and wise and great soever, or whatsoever natural, or civil, or ecclesiastical relation he may have to us, can claim this dominion over our faith. St. Paul the Apostle, in his private capacity would not do it; nor hath an inspired man any such authority, until he makes his divine commission appear. Our Saviour himself tells the Jews, that if he had not done such wondrous works among them, they had not sinned in disbelieving

his doctrines, and refusing him for the Messiah.' No bishop or presbyter, no synod or council, no church or assembly of men, since the days of inspiration, hath power derived to them from God, to make creeds or articles of faith for us, and impose them upon our understandings. We must all act according to the best of our own light, and the judgment of our own consciences, using the best advantages which Providence hath given us, with honest and impartial diligence to inquire and search out the truth; for 'every one of us must give an account of himself to God."""

2. Independence of mind implies exemption from the influence of the passions:

"The various passions or affections of the mind are numerous and endless springs of prejudice. They disguise every object they converse with, and put their own colours upon it, and thus lead the judgment astray from truth. It is love that makes the mother think her own child the fairest, and will sometimes persuade us that a blemish is beauty. Hope and desire make an hour of delay seem as long as two or three hours; hope inclines us to think there is nothing too difficult to be attempted; despair tells us that a brave attempt is mere rashness, and that every difficulty is insurmountable. Fear makes us imagine that a bush shaken with the wind has some savage beast in it, and multiplies the dangers that attend our path....Sorrow and melancholy tempt us to think our circumstances much more dismal than they are, that we may have some excuse for mourning; and envy represents the condition of our neighbour better than it is, that there may be some pretence for her own vexation and uneasiness. Anger, and wrath, and revenge, and all those hateful passions, excite in us far worse ideas of men than they deserve, and persuade us to believe all that is ill of them. A detail of the evil influence of the affections of the mind upon our judgment, would make a large volume."

3. Independence of mind implies exemption from the influence of constitutional infirmities::

"The credulous man is ready to receive everything for truth, that has but a shadow of evidence; every new book that he reads, and every ingenious man with whom he converses, has power enough to draw him into the sentiments of the speaker or writer. He has so much complaisance in him, or weakness of soul, that he is ready to resign his own opinion to the first objection which he hears, and to receive any sentiments of another that are asserted with a positive air and much assurance.

"The man of contradiction is of a contrary humour, for he stands ready to oppose everything that is said: he gives a slight

attention to the reasons of other men, from an inward scornful presumption that they have no strength in them. When he reads or hears a discourse different from his own sentiments, he does not give himself leave to consider whether that discourse may be true; but employs all his powers immediately to confute it. Your great disputers and your men of controversy, are in continual danger of this sort of prejudice: they contend often for victory, and will maintain whatsoever they have asserted, while truth is lost in the noise and tumult of reciprocal contradictions; and it frequently happens, that a debate about opinions is turned into a mutual reproach of persons.

"Another sort of temper that is very injurious to a right judgment of things, is an inconstant, fickle, changeable spirit, and a very uneven temper of mind. When such persons are in one humour, they pass a judgment of things agreeable to it; when their humour changes, they reverse their first judgment, and embrace a new opinion. They have no steadiness of soul; they want firmness of mind sufficient to establish themselves in any truth, and are ready to change it for the next alluring falsehood that is agreeable to their change of humour. This fickleness is sometimes so mingled with their very constitution by nature, or by distemper of body, that a cloudy day and lowering sky shall strongly incline them to form an opinion both of themselves, and of persons and things round about them, quite different from what they believe when the sun shines, and the heavens are

serene.

"This sort of people ought to judge of things and persons in their most sedate, peaceful, and composed hours of life, and reserve these judgments for their conduct at more unhappy

seasons."

4. Independence of mind implies exemption from the influence of manner :

"There is another tribe of prejudices which is near akin to those of authority, and that is, when we receive a doctrine because of the manner in which it is proposed to us by others. I have already mentioned the powerful influence that oratory and fine words have to insinuate à false opinion, and sometimes truth is refused, and suffers contempt in the lips of a wise man, for want of the charms of language: but there are several other manners of proposals, whereby mistaken sentiments are powerfully conveyed into the mind.

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"Some persons are easily persuaded to believe what another dictates with a positive air, and a great degree of assurance: they feel the overbearing force of a confident dictator, especially if he be of a superior rank or character to themselves.