PREFACE TO "A BRIEF SCHEME OF ONTOLOGY." EVERY man who employs himself in thinking, endeavours to dispose his ideas in such an order as appears to him most comprehensive and perspicuous in itself, and most obvious to his own survey, as well as easiest for his recol- lection. If I could have met with any such short and plain scheme of On- tology as I wished, among the authors uhence 1 learnt that science, I had never taken pains to form this model or draw the present sketch. I amnot conscious that I have admitted into it any of those barren and perplexing subtleties which have over-run thisbranch of learning, as it has been culti vated in the schools under the title of Metaphysics. In our daysindeed that name is,dropt, and with much better reason it is termed Ontology, or the Knowledge of Being in General, with its various affections, i. e. theproperties, adjuncts, and relations that belong to it. It is an useful science's itself whie i teaches us 'to place every being and every thought and ideais its proper order in our minds, and givesus an extensive and regular survey of things ; and I am sure it may be exhibited in such a manner as to secure it effectually treat that just censure, and that forbidding character which the learned professorDe Vries gives to the metaphysics of the schools in former ages. His satire on it may be thus expressed mEng- lish. " fbjssscience, sloth he, was treated of by the sopbisters in such a way, that one would swear they aimed at nothing else but to vex and torture theunderstanding with difficult trifles and to infect all language with blun- dering nonsense, andwith the grating horror of barbaroussounds, which have no meaning. These were men of empty and vain subtlety, who built up hue.votutttV of worthless words'and disputes about nothing; whose leaves if they were not divided by the grocers to wrap up spice and sugar, would now lie for ever ip:hesps to feed gnetba aid bookworms. This is so far from deserving the title ofwisdom or prime philosophy, thatit is ratherthe extreme folly of monkish dreams and dotages." Such, just and severe satireas this being spread abroad in some modern schools, and in the polite world bath tempted our youth to run to another extreme: many of themwill sneer at the name of Metaphysics, and pass a scornful censure on all the science of Ontology at once: they are ashamed of knowing it, and therefore renounce all pretence to it with pride and pleasure. The endless multitudes of senseless and empty distinctions of the ancients, their useless and thorny questions and disputes introduced into this science, and the many odd and absurd canons and axioms which they were wont to place among those principleswhich they called the primefoundations of all learning, have appeared to our age in so ridiculous a light, that we have been too ready to throw away this useful part of philosophy, becauseof the follies which have been blended with it. But it becomes a philosopher to distinguish between the gold and the dross, and not to renounce and abandon a rich mine because the ore is not refined, or perhaps has been debasedwith vile mixtures by some foolish labourers and melters. If we would not suffer ourselves to be imposed upon by a little empty raillery. but take a just view of things inorder to pass a right judgment, we should find this part of philosophy is very necessary and of admirable use to all men ofscience, and that in every branch of the learned professions: To bare all the vast multitude of themes and ideas about which we have occasion
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