516 LOGIC: FOR, THE RIGHT USE OP REASON. vey.'of their 'Subject and design in all the parts of it; and by this. means they will better judge what to choose and what to. refuse ; and how to dress and manage the whole scene before them, so as to attain their own ends with greater glory and success.. CHAP. II. The Rules of 34fhod, general itnd particular. THE general requisites of true method in the pursuit or camtnunigtstioq of knowledge, may be all comprised under the following heads. It must be (1.) Safe. (2.) Plain and easy. (3.) 'l,)istioet. (4.) Full or without defect. (5.) Short or with- out,soper$uity, (6.) Proper to the subject and the design. (7.) Connected. Rule. I. Among all the qualifications of a good method, there is none more necessary and important than that it should he safe and secure from error ; and to this end these four parti- cular oe special directions should be observed. 1, "'Use great care and circumspection in laying the foun- dations of your discourse, or your scheme of thoughts upon any subject." Those propositions which are to stand as first princi- ples, and on which the whole argument depends, must be viewed ors all sides with. the utmost accuracy, lest an error being admit- , ted there, should diffuse itself through the whole subject. See therefore that your general definitions or descriptions are as accu- rate as the nature of the thing will bear ; see that your general divisions and distributions be just and exact, according to the rules given in the first part of Logic ; see that your axioms be sufficiently evident, , so as to demand the assent of those that ex- atniae them with due attention ; see that your first and more im- mediate consequences from these principles be well drawn ; and take the same care of all other propositions that have a power- ful and spreading influence through the several parts of your discourse. For want of this care sometimes a large treatise has been written by a long deduction of consequences from one or two doubtful principles, which principles have been effeetnaily refu- ted in a few lines, and thus the whole treatise has been destroyed at once ; so the largest anti fairest building sinks and tumbles to the round, if the foundation and corner- stones of it are feeble and Insufñcient. 2. It is a very advisable thing that your ° primary and fun- damental propositions be not only evident and true, but they should be made a little familiar to the mind by dwelling upon them before you proceed farther, ' By this means you will gain ao full an acquaintance with them, that you may draw consequen-
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