CHARTER VI. 399 V. Distribute every subject according to the special design. you have in view; so far as is necessary or useful to your present enquiry. Thus a politician distributes. mankind according to their civil characters into the rulers and the.ruled; anda phy- sician divides them into the sick or the- healthy ; hut a divine distributes. them into Turks, Heathens, Jews, or Christians. Here note, That it is a very useless thing to distribute any idea into such kinds or members as have no different, properties to be spoken of; as it is mere trifling to divide right angles into such whòse legs are equal, and whose legs- are. unequal, for as to the mere right angles they have -no different properties. VI. In all your distributions observe the nature of things 'with great exactness ; and do not affect any particular form of distribution, as some persons have done, by dividing every genus into two species, or into three species; whereas nature is infi- nitely various and human affairs and. human sciences,have as great a variety, nor is there any one form of distribution that will- exactly suit with all subjects. Note,_ It is to this, doctrine of distribution of a genus, info. its several species, we must also refer the distribution, of a cause . according to its several effects, as some medicines are heating, some are cooling ; or an effect, 'when it- is distinguished by its causes; as faith is either built upon divine testimony or.human. It is to this head we refer particular artificial bodies, when they, are distinguished according to the matter they are made of; as statue is either of brass, of marble, or wood, &c. and any other beings, when they are distinguished according to their end and design, as the fianiture of body or mind is either hr orna_ , meat or use. To this head also we refer subjects when they are divided according to their modes or sçcidents ; as men are either, merry, or grave, or sad;, and modes, when they are divided by their subjects as distempers belong to the fluids, or to the solid parts of the animal. It is also to this place we reduce the proposals. of a. difficulty under its various cases, whether it be in speculation ór practice ;. as, to shew the reason of sun -beams burning wood, whether it be done by a convex glass or a concave : or to shew the con- struction and mensuration of triangles, whether you have two angles and a side given, or two sides and an angle, or only three sides. Here it is necessary to distribute or divide a difficulty in all its cases, in order to gain a perfect knowledge of the subject you contemplate. It might be observed here, that logicians have sometimes given a mark or sign to distinguish when it is an integral whole, that is divided into its parts or members, or when it is a genus, an universal whole, that is distributed into its, species and indi- viduals. The rule they give is this: whensoever the whole idea ab3
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