CHAPTER I. 5tó It finds out effect's by their.caúses. So the practical and me= chanical part of natural philosophy considers such powers of mo- tion; as the rand, the fire, and the water, &c. and then contrives what uses they may be applied to, and what will be their effects hi order to make mills and engines of various kinds. (3.) It finds out the, general and special nature of a thing by considering the various attributes of the individuals, and observz ing what is common and shat is proper, what is accidental, and what is essential. So by surveying the colour, the shape, motion, rest, place, solidity, extension of bodies we come to find that the nature of body in general is solid extension ; because all other qualities of bodies are changeble, but this belongs to all bodies, and it endures through all changes ; and because this is proper to body alone, and agrees not to any thing else ; and it is the foundation of all other properties, (4.) It finds Out the remaining properties or parts of a thing by having some parts or properties given. So the area of triangle is found by knot*ing the height and the base. So by having two sides, and an angle of a triangle given we find the remaining side, and angles. So when we know cogitation is the prime attribute of a spirit, we infer its immateriality, and thence its immortality. (S.) Analysis finds the means decess'ar to attain a propposeel end, by having the end first assigaétl. So in moral, political, economical affairs, having proposed the golernment of self, a family, a society, or a nation, in order to their best intérest, WA cbnaider and search out what are the proper laws, rule's and means to effect it. So in tire practices of artificers, and the manufactu:- rers of various kinds, the end being proposed, as, making cloth, houses, ships, &c. we find out ways Of composing these thing* for the several uses of human life. But the putting any of these means in execution to attain the end, is synthetic method. ' Many other particulars might be represented to show the various forms of analytic method, whereby truth is found out, and some of them come very near to synthetic, so as hardly to be di's_ tinguished. II. Not only the investigation of truth, but the commanfca= lion of it also is often practised in such a method, as neither agrees precisely to synthetic or analytic. Some sciences, if you consider the whole of them in general, are treated in synthetic order ; so physics, or natural philosophy, begins usually with an account of the general nature and properties of matter or bodies, rtnd by degrees descends to consider the particular species of bodies with their powers and properties ; yet it is very evident, that when philosophers come to particular plants and animals, then by chemistry and anatomy they analyse to resolve those bodies into their several constituent parts ï On the other hand, VOL. vn. K x
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