522 LOGIC : On, rrTTE EIGHT OSE OF REASON. vallation, at the siege of a town in Livonia ; and by the length of those formalities he lost the opportunity of taking the town. 7. " Do not suffer every occasional and incidental thought to carry you away into a long parenthesis, and thus to stretch out your discourse, and divert you from the point in hand." In the pursuit of your subject, if any useful thought occur which belongs to some other theme, note it down for the sake of your memory on some other paper, and lay it by in reserve for its pro- per place and season : but let it not incorporate itself with your _present theme, nor draw off your mind from your main business, though it should be ever so inviting. A man who walks directly but slowly towards his journey's end, will arrive thither much sooner than his neighbour, who runs into every crooked turning which he meets, and wanders aside to gaze at every thing that strikes his eyes by the way, or to gather every gaudy flower that grows by the side of the road. To sum up all : " There is an happy medium to be observ- ed in our method, so that the brevity may not render the sense obscure, nor the argument feeble, nor our knowledge merely superficial : and on the other hand, that the fulness and copi- ousness of our method may not waste the time, tire the learner, -or fill the mind with trifles and impertinences." The copious and the contracted way of writing have each their peculiar advantages. There is a proper use to be made of -large paraphrases, and full, particular, and diffusive explications and arguments ; these are fittest for those who design to be ac- quainted' thoroughly with every part of the subject.. There is also a use of shorter hints, abstracts, and compendiums, to in- struct those who seek only a- slight and general knowledge, as well as to refresh the memory of those who have learned the science already, and gone through a larger scheine. But it is a gross abuse of these various methods of instruction, when a person has read a mere compendium or epitome of any science, and he vainly imagines that he understands the whole science. So one boy may become a philosopher by reading over the mere dry definitions and divisions of Scheibler's Compendium of Peripatecism ; So another may boast that he understands anatomy, because he has seen a skeleton, and a third profess himself a learned divine, when he can repeat the apostles' -creed. Rule VI. " Take care that your method be proper to the subject in hand, proper to your present design, as well as pro- per to the age and place wherein you dwell." 1. Let your method be proper to the subject.. All sciences -trust not be learned or taught in one method. Morality and theology, metaphysics, and logic, will not be easily and happily
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