PG LOGIC : OR, THE.RIGHT APSE OF REASON. is a man who buys and sells sugar, and plumbs, and spices for gain. A dock is an engine tvith weights and wheels, and spews the hour of the day both by pointing and striking -; and if I were to define a repeating clock ; I must add another property, namely, that it also repeats the hour. So that the true and primary es- sential difference of some complex ideas consisting in several dis- tinct properties, cannot be well expressed without conjunctive particles of speech. 2d, There is no need that definitions should ahvays'be posi- tive, for some things differ from others merely by a defect of what others have ; as if a chair be defined a seat for a single person with a back belonging to it, then a stool is a seat for a single per- son without a back; and a firm is a seat for several persons .without a back; these are negative differences. So sin is want of corfrrrnit to the law of God ; blindness is a want of, sight ; a vagabond is a person without a home. Some ideas are negative, and their definitions ought to be so too. 3d, Some things may have two or more definitions, and each of theta equally just and good ; as a mile is the length of eight furlongs, or it is the third part of a league. Eternal is that which, ever was, and ever shall be; or it is that which has no beginning,. and shall have no end. Man* is usually defined a rational anirrral; but it may be much better to define him a " spirit united to an animal of such a shape, or an animal of such a peculiar shape united to a spirit, or a being. composed of such an oral and a Mind. " 4th, Where the.essences of things are evident, and clearly .distinct from each other, there we may be more exact and accu- rate in the definitions of them; but where their essences approach near to each other, the definition is more difficult. A bird may be defined a feathered animal with wings ; a ship may be defined a large hollow building made to pass over the sea with sails; but if you ask me to define a bat, which is between a bird and a beast, or to define a barge and hoy, which are between a boat . and a ship, it is much harder to define them, or to adjust the bounds of their essence. This is very evident in all monstrous births, and irregular productions of nature, as well as in many works of art, which partake so much of one species and so midi of another, that we cannot tell under which species to: rank them, or how to determine their specific difference. The several species of beings are seldom precisely limited * The common d finition of man, namely, a rational animal, is very fealty; 1. Because the animal is not rational ; the rationality of man arises from the mind to which the animal is united. 2. Because if a spirit should tie united to a horse and make it a rational being, surely the would not he a man; it is ev.dent therefore that the peculiar shape must enter into the definition of a man to render it just and perfect; and fur waist of a full description thereof, all our definitions are defective,
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=