So in writing the lives of men, which is called Bicgraphy, fome authors follow the tract of their years, and place every thing in the precife order of time when it occurred: others throw the temper and characters of the perfons, their private life, their public ftations, their perfonal occurrences, their domeftic conduct, their fpeeches, their books or writings, their sickness and death, into fo many diftinct chapters.

In chronology, fome writers makes their epochas to begin all with one letter: fo in the book called Ductor Hifloricus, the periods all begin with C; as, Creation, Cataclyfm or deluge, Chaldean empire, Cyrus, Christ, Conftantine, &c. Some divide their accounts of time according to the four great monarchies, Affyrian, Perfian, Grecian and Roman. Others think it ferves the memory best to divide all their subjects into the remarkable number of fevens; fo Prideaux has written an Introduction to Hiftory. And there is a book of divinity called Fafciculus Controverfiarum, by an author of the fame name, written in the fame method, wherein every controverfy has feven queftions belonging to it; though the order of nature seems to be too much neglected by a confinement to this feptenary number.

Those writers and fpeakers, whofe chief business is to amufe and delight, or allure, terrify, or perfuade mankind, do not confine themselves to any natural order, but in a cryptical or hidden method adapt every thing to their defigned ends. Sometimes they omit thofe things which might injure their defign, or grow tedious to their hearers though they seem to have a neceffary relation to the point in hand: fometimes they add thofe things which have no great reference to the fubject, but are fuited to allure or refresh the mind and the ear. They dilate fometimes, and flourish long upon little incidents, and they fkip over, and but lightly touch the drier part of their theme. They place the firit things laft, and the laft things firft, with wondrous art, and yet fo manage it as to conceal their artifice, and lead the fenfes and paffions of their hearers into a pleafing and powerful captivity.

It is chiefly poefy and oratory that requires the practice of this kind of arbitrary method: they omit things eflential which are not beautiful, they infert little need

lefs circumstances, and beautiful digreffions, they invert time and actions, in order to place every thing in the most affecting light, and for this end in their practice they neglect all logical forms; yet a good acquaintance with the forms of Logic and natural method, is of admirable use to those who would attain these arts in perfection. Hereby they will be able to range their own thoughts in fuch a method and scheme, as to make a more large and comprehenfive furvey of their fubject and defign in all the parts of it; and by this means they will better judge what to chufe and what to refuse; and how to drefs and manage the whole fcene before them, so as to attain their own ends with greater glory and fuccefs.

TH

CHAP. II.

The Rules of Method, General and Special.

HE general requifites of true method in the purfuit or communication of knowledge, may be all comprised under the following heads. It must be (1.) Safe. (2) Plain and easy. (3.) Distinct. (4.) Full, or without defect. (5.) Short or without fuperfluity. (6.) Proper to the subject and the defign. (7.) Connected.

I. Rule. Among all the qualifications of a good methed, there is none more neceffary and important than that it should be fafe and fecure from error; and to this end thefe four particular, or special directions fhould be observed.

1. Ufe great care and circumfpection in laying the foundations of your difcourfe, or your scheme of thoughts upon any fubject. Thefe propofitions which are to ftand as fit principles, and on which the whole argument depends, must be viewed on all fides with the utmost accuracy, left an error, being admitted there, thould diffufe itself through the whole fubject. See therefore that your general definitions or defcriptions are as accurate as the nature of the thing will bear: See that your general divifions and diftributions be juit and

exact, according to the rules given in the first part of Logic: See that your axioms be fufficiently evident, fo as to demand the affent of those that examine them with due attention. See that your firft and more immediate confequences from thefe principles be well drawn; and take the fame care of all other propofitions. that have a powerful and spreading influence through. the feveral parts of your difcourfe.

For want of this care fometimes a large treatise has been written by a long deduction of confequences from one or two doubtful principles, which principles have been effectually refuted in a few lines, and thus the whole treatife has been deftroyed at once; fo the largeft and faireft buildings fink and tumble to the ground, if the foundations and corner-ftones of it are feeble and infufficient.

2. It is a very adviseable thing that your primary and fundamental propofitions be not only evident and. true, but they fhould be made a little familiar to the mind, by dwelling upon them before you proceed farther. By this means you will gain fo full an acquaintance with them, that you may draw confequences from, them with much more freedom, with greater variety,. brighter evidence, and with a firmer certainty, than if you have but a flight and sudden view of them.

3. As you proceed in the connection of your arguments, fee that your ground be made firm in every step. See that every link of your chain of reasoning. be strong and good: for if but one link be feeble and doubtful, the whole chain of arguments feels weakness of it, and lies exposed to every objector, and the original question remains undetermined..

4. Draw up all your propofitions and arguments with fo much caution, and express your ideas with fuch a just li mitation, as may preclude or anticipate any objections. Yet remember this is only to be done as far as it is poffible, without too much entangling the question, or introducing complicated ideas, and obfcuring the fenfe.. But if fuch a cautious and limited drefs of the question: fhould render the ideas too much complicated, or the fenfe obfcure, then it is better to keep the argument: more fimple, clear and easy to be understood, and af

terwards mention the objections diftinctly in their full trength, and give a distinct answer to them.

II. Rule. Let your method be plain and eafy, so that your hearers or readers, as well as yourself, may run thro' it without embarrassment, and may take a clear and comprehenfive view of the whole fcheme. To this end the following particular directions will be useful.

1. Begin always with thofe things which are best known,. and most obvious, whereby the mind may have no difficulty: or fatigue, and proceed by regular and eafy fteps to things that are more difficult. And as far as poflible let not the understanding, or the proof of any of your pofitions depend on the pofitions that follow but always on thofe which go before. It is a matter of wonder that in fo knowing an age as this, there fhould be fo many perfons offering violence daily to this rule, by teaching the Latin language by a grammar written in Latin, which method feems to require a perfect knowledge of an unknown tongue, in order to learn the first rudi

ments of it.

2. Do not effect exceffive hafte in learning or teaching. any feience, nor hurry at once into the midst of it, let you. be too foon involved in feveral new and itrange ideas. and propofitions, which cannnot be well understood without a longer and clofer attention to those which go before. Such fort of speech is but a waste of time, and will conftrain you to take many fteps-backward again, if you would arrive at a regular and complete knowledge of the subject..

3. Be not fond of crowding too many thoughts and reafonings into one fentence or paragraph, beyond the apprehenfion or capacity of your readers or bearers. There are fome perfons of good genius, and a capacious mind,. who write and fpeak very obfcurely upon this account'; they effect a long train of dependencies, before they come to a period, they imagine that they can never fill their page with too much fenfe; but they little think how they bury their own best ideas in the crowd, and render them in a manner invisible and useless to the greatest part of mankind. Such men may be fcholars, yet they are but poor teachers.

great

4 For the fame reason, avoid too many fubdivifions. Contrive your fcheme of thoughts in fuch manner as

may finish your whole argument with as few inferior branchings as reafon will admit, and let them be fuch as are obvious and open to the understanding that they may come within one fingle view of the mind. This will not only affift the understanding to receive, but it will aid the memory alfo to retain truth: whereas a difcourfe cut out into a vast multitude of gradual subordinations has many inconveniences in it; it gives pain to the mind and memory, in furveying and retaining the fcheme of difcourfe, and expofes the unfkilful hearers to mingle the fuperior and inferior particulars together, it leads them into a thick wood, inftead of open day-light, and places them in a labyrinth instead of a plain path.

5. Give all diligence in your younger years to obtain a clear and eafy way of expreffing your conceptions, that your words, as fast as you utter them, may itamp your ideas exactly on the mind of the hearer. This is a moft happy talent for the conveyance of truth, and an excellent fecurity against mistakes and needlefs controversies.

III. Rule.. Let your method be diftinct, and without the perplexing mixture of things that ought to be kept separate, and this will be eafily practifed by four di rections.

*

1. Do not bring unneceffary heterogeneous matter in your difcourfe on any fubject; that is, do not mingle an argument on one fubject with matters that relate entirely to another, but juft fo far as is neceffary to give a clearer knowledge of the fubject in hand. Examples in Logic may be borrowed from any of the fciences to illuftrate the rules: but long interpofitions of natural philofophy, of the imagination and paffions, of agency of fpirit united to bodies, &c. break the thread of difcourfe, and perplex the fubject..

2. Let every complicated theme or idea be divided into its diftinct fingle parts, as far as the nature of the fubject, and your prefent defign requires it. Though you must not abound in needlefs fubdivifions, yet fomething of this work is very neceffary; and it is good judgment alone can dictate how far to proceed in it, and when to stop.

*Things of one kind are called homogeneous, things of different kinds are called heterogeneous.