with which he is most familiar. A professor of mathematics may reason well on mathematics, and badly on morals, simply because he is accustomed to one kind of reasoning and not accustomed to the other. This affords no evidence that his capacity for moral reasoning has been. impaired by his study of mathematics. It appears to me more rational to suppose, that the discipline imparted to the mind by mathematical studies, tends to give increased precision and energy to all the other operations in which it may engage. At the same time, in passing through life, you will find that a dexterity in performing the operations of Arithmetic will be of more use to you than a knowledge of the abstract principles on which these operations are founded. Sam Slick says, "If you wish to go a-head, there's nothing like cyphering."

5. To form a habit of reasoning, you must keep yourself in practice.

One way of doing this is frequently to review all your opinions, and examine the arguments by which they are supported, and the objections to which they are exposed. Do not take your opinions in clusters upon the authority of the party or body to which you belong. Examine them one by one for yourself, and be at all times prepared to render a reason for any doctrine that forms an article in either your political or your religious creed. Read occasionally those books or newspapers that contain attacks upon the sentiments you hold, and think to yourself what you would say in case you were called upon to reply to those attacks. Take a parliamentary speech, for instance, and fancy how you would reply to it. In cases of actual contest attack the most able man of his party. You pay yourself a poor compliment by selecting a weak opponent. It is by wrestling with superior minds that we increase our own strength. In logical disputation, as in social life, no honour can be gained by quarrels with inferiors. You should engage only in those contests in which victory is attended with renown.

Many of our most distinguished men have in their youth been members of debating societies. We have in

former days met at such societies men of high talent, who have rendered, and are still rendering good service to their country and to the world. These associations possess the same advantages, and are liable to the same objections that are pointed out by Dr. Watts in regard to scholastic disputations. (See page 268.) I believe that societies formed for the sole purpose of debate are not so numerous as formerly, but most of our literary and scientific institutions have a "discussion class," which answers the same purpose. I advise you to join this class. Institutions that are adapted to make wise men wiser should not be laid aside merely because in some instances they may do injury to men who are not wise. If you have a talent for speaking, by all means cultivate it, but do not fancy that a fluent speaker is necessarily a good logician. Study your speeches beforehand, and arrange your thoughts under one, two, or three heads, but do not write them out. Guard against dogmatism on the one hand, and scepticism on the other. Discuss only those questions on which there can be a reasonable difference of opinion. Never attempt to prove a doctrine that is transparently true, nor to refute a doctrine that is transparently absurd; and never, even to get up a debate, argue in favour of any doctrine that you do not honestly believe. At the close of every debate, sum up in your own mind the arguments that have been advanced on both sides of the question that has been discussed, and then form, correct, or confirm your own opinion.

On this subject, I will quote from Mr. John Mottram's "Institutional Education." This essay obtained the prize offered to its members by the City of London Literary and Scientific Institution, for the best essay on "The Characteristics and Advantages of Literary and Scientific Institutions; their claims to the support of society; and the best means of extending their usefulness."

It is a good thing for a man that he should bring his opinion into occasional conflict with those of other men: that he should regard those opinions from other points of view than what his own mind can furnish of itself; that he should look upon them as others look upon them; and either be strengthened in his own impressions, or suffer those impressions to pass away; in either case becoming mentally and morally advantaged. And this has its

practical advantages in our daily life. It is necessary for a man that he should be prepared to take part in the conflict of opinion that is constantly going on in the world; and these occasional argumentative contests prepare him for this work."

"The power of accustoming ourselves to discuss the opinions of others, becomes a habit of the greatest advantage to society; it prevents the taking upon trust new opinions, or the pinning our faith to any, however prevalent they may be; and it promotes that spirit of inquiry into the rationality of an opinion that must tend very considerably to augment the predominance of truth among men, and to aid on their progress. The man who feels the power within himself which frequent discussion upon all matters moral and political will give him—who appreciates the much higher character of this power over other modes of influencing men's minds-will not be the man to apply to the legislature of his country for acts to coerce the opinions of his fellow-man, or to legalise and support his own views, by this course seeking to bring discredit and ruin upon the opinions of others; nor will he be the man to raise the standard of rebellion, making violence the arbitrator between truth and error; but ever struggling on, eager in the promulgation of his convictions, ever preparing and ever using the weapons mind places at his disposal, he will in this way, and in no other, seek to make his opinions prevail around him. These Institutions, in affording scope for the necessary inquiries, and for the preparation necessary to the culture of this reliance upon the power of argument, and the continual progress of truth, put forward great claims to the support and attention of society. They are the schools, and they might be made more effectual schools, for the preparation required for taking part in the active duties and struggles of the world. Within their walls there is much of the information, order, and propriety of arrangements acquired, which fit a man for taking part in public business, to the advantage of the society of which he is a member."-Institutional Education.

6. To form a habit of reasoning, attend to the discipline of your own mind with regard to its moral principles and dispositions.

The cultivation of the moral feelings improves the intellectual faculties. A sound heart is less likely to go astray than a clever head. "The entrance of thy words giveth light, it giveth understanding to the simple." On this subject we shall be content to quote from two authors -not theologians-who have written on very different subjects.

Mr. Taylor, of the Colonial Office, thus writes in his work entitled "The Statesman:

"If there be in the character not only sense and soundness, but virtue of a high order, then, however little appearance there may be of talent, a certain portion of wisdom may be relied upon almost implicitly. For the correspondencies of wisdom and goodness are manifold; and that they will accompany each other is to be inferred, not only because men's wisdom makes them good, but also because their goodness makes them wise. Questions of right and wrong are a perpetual exercise of the faculties of those who are solicitous as to the right and wrong of what they do and see; and a deep interest of the heart in these questions carries with it a deeper cultivation of the understanding than can be easily effected by any other excitement to intellectual activity. Although, therefore, simple goodness does not imply every sort of wisdom, it unerringly implies some essential conditions of wisdom; it implies a negative on folly, and an exercised judgment within such limits as nature shall have prescribed to the capacity. And where virtue and extent of capacity are combined, there is implied the highest wisdom, being that which includes the worldly wisdom with the spiritual."-The Statesman.

Mr. Blakey, who is now the Professor of Logic and Metaphysics in the Queen's College, Belfast, writes as follows:

“I am fully convinced that there is a much closer connexion between mental superiority, and a belief in the Scriptures, than is commonly imagined. Sceptical modes of thinking have a direct and natural tendency to beget a captious, quibbling, sophistical, habit; to create and foster literary arrogance and conceit; to destroy whatever is candid and ingenuous in controversial warfare; to make the mind diminutive, rickety, and distorted; and to induce men to set a higher value on crotchety sophisms than on the inspirations of real wisdom and science. On the other

hand, where the Scriptures are embraced with that sincerity, heartiness, and singleness of mind, to which their manifest importance so justly entitles them, we will perceive a comprehensiveness, a vigour, and elasticity given to our minds, which cannot fail to place us on the vantage ground, whatever branch of knowledge we may choose to cultivate, or to excel in. The mind, no longer groping its way through the hazy and murky atmosphere of doubt and uncertainty, advances with a firm and confident step, under the bright and irradiating influence of the sun of truth. By the contemplation of whatever is grand and sublime in doctrine, and

pure and simple in precept, our minds are naturally led, by our established constitution, to spread themselves into a wider compass; to improve their various powers or faculties, by giving them an enlarged sphere of action; to dwell upon what is great, noble, and excellent; to pursue our course with freedom and boldness, unencumbered with babbling sophistries, and cheered with the consolatory reflection, that we are engaged in promoting whatever is esteemed among mankind fair, honourable, and praiseworthy." -Blakey's History of Moral Science.

And now, gentle reader, I have finished my book upon the Art of Reasoning. But as there is an intimate connexion between reasoning and speaking, I shall add an Appendix on the Philosophy of Language. This appendix is the substance of a lecture I delivered in November, 1832, before the Waterford Literary and Scientific Institution. After you have read it, I advise you to read the index, as this will recal to your mind the principal topics discussed in the body of the work. You may then place the book in the hands of your children, or of your younger brothers and sisters. But before you do this, you had better read it a second time, and mark with a pencil those parts best adapted for their first reading. You will, perhaps, think that they may commit to memory the leading paragraphs in the second and third parts, in the same way that they have learned at school the first principles of grammar and geography; and that the other parts of the work may be divided into Lessons in Reading. Young men may form themselves into classes, and read a section at each of their meetings, and every member might, from his own reading, occupation, or profession, give an additional illustration of the rules propounded in the section. In this way they might train their minds into an accurate mode of thinking and of reasoning without encumbering themselves with the technicalities and subtilities of scholastic logic. They who desire nothing more than useful amusement, may skip the rules, and read the illustrations. These, in the language of a Reviewer, form "a collection of Elegant Extracts."