under the three following heads:-1. History, comprehending sacred, prophetic, and ecclesiastical history; literary history, including the history of philosophy and the arts; civil history, including particular history, general history, memoirs, antiquities, and biography; also, geography and chronology, which have been denominated the Eyes of history; natural history, including mineralogy, botany, and general zoology, meteorology, geology, and the facts which relate to the heavenly bodies.-2. Philosophy, including ontology, the mathematical sciences, pure and mixed; natural and revealed theology, esthetics, or the science of our feelings and emotions; ethics, logic, political economy and legislation; natural philosophy, chemistry, physical astronomy, medicine, the physiology of plants, human and comparative anatomy, &c.-3. Art, including the fine arts, as poetry, oratory, painting, architecture, gardening, &c.; the liberal arts, as practical logic, practical geometry, practical chemistry, surgery, &c. and the mechanical arts, as dyeing, weaving, clock and watch making, &c. Under the third head might be illustrated the different kinds of evidence, as the evidence of intellection, of sense, of testimony, of analogy, &c. and the means by which evidence on any subject may be most successfully obtained; which would include a discussion of the modes of reasoning by syllogism, induction, analysis, and synthesis-of the sources of error, and of the dispositions and circumstances among mankind from which errors and fallacious reasonings arise-a subject which would require to be illustrated with considerable minuteness from the facts of history, and the circumstances which exist in the present state of the human race. Under the fourth head might be included—1. A general view of the different means which men have employed for communicating their thoughts to each other.-2. An explanation of the nature of arbitrary signs, and the principles of universal grammar.-3. An enumeration and description of the different qualities of style, and the best method of constructing a discourse on any subject.

To a class of young persons, about the age of fifteen or sixteen, a popular illustration of some of the above topics might be attended with many beneficial effects, particularly in inducing upon them habits of reasoning and reflection, and guarding them against the influence of prejudices, and sophistical arguments and reasonings. Although it would evidently be injudicious and premature to attempt such discussions in primary schools, yet a judicious teacher, well acquainted with the science of mind and the nature of evidence, might occasionally illustrate certain parts of this subject, particularly in teaching the young to reason with propriety

on any familiar objects or incidents with which they are acquainted. It may be laid down as an axiom, that from the earliest dawn of reason children should be accustomed to exercise their reasoning faculty on every object to which their attention is directed, and taught to assign a reason for every opinion they adopt, and every action they perform. Without troubling them with explanations of the various forms and moods of syllogisms, they may be taught the nature of reasoning, and the force of arguments, by familiar examples taken from sensible objects with which they are in some measure acquainted. Logicians define reasoning to be that power which enables us, by the intervention of intermediate ideas, to perceive the relation of two ideas, or their agreement or disagreement. This might be illustrated to the young by such examples as the following:-Suppose there are two tables, A and B, which cannot be applied to each other, and we wish to know whether A be longer or shorter than B; we endeavour to find an "intermediate idea," or measure, namely, a three-feet rule, and apply it, first to table A, and then to table B. We find that A measures thirty-six inches, coinciding exactly with the three-feet rule, and that B measures only thirty-four inches; therefore, the inference or conclusion, at which we wished to arrive, is evident, that table A is longer than table B. Again, suppose we would know whether the space contained in the triangle C, be equal to, or greater or less than that contained in the circle E; we cannot apply these figures to each other in

order to determine this point; we must therefore search for an intermediate idea which will apply to both. We fix on a square -a square foot for example, and from the length of the base, E F, and the perpendicular F G, in the triangle C, we find the

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number of square feet to be 160. Having the length of the dia meter of the circle, HI, we find that there are likewise 160 square feet contained within its circumference; and therefore the conclusion is evident, that the space contained within the triangle C is equal to that contained in the circle E. This example, reduced to the form of a syllogism, would stand thus: Any two figures which contain the same number of square feet are equal to one another; but the triangle C contains the same number of square feet as the circle E; therefore the space contained in the triangle C is equal to the space contained within the circle E.

Again, the sun appears to be only a few inches in diameter, and as flat as the face of a clock or a plate of silver. Suppose it were inquired how we may determine that the sun is much larger than he appears to be, and whether his surface be flat or convex, or of any other figure,—the pupil may be requested to search for intermediate ideas, by which these points may be determined. One idea or principle, which experience proves, requires to be recognized, that all objects appear less in size, in proportion to their distance from the observer. A large building, at the distance of twenty miles, appears to the naked eye only like a visible point; and a dog, a horse, or a man, are, at such a distance, altogether invisible. We find, by experience, that when the sun has just risen above the horizon in the morning, he appears as large as he does, when on our meridian at noonday; but it can be proved, that he is then nearly 4000 miles (or the half diameter of the earth) nearer to us than when he arose in the morning; therefore, the sun must be at a great distance from us, at least several thousands of miles, otherwise he would appear much larger in the one case than in the other, just as a house or a town appears much larger than when we approach within a mile of it than it does at the distance of eight or ten miles. It is known that the inhabitants of Great Britain, and those who live about the Cape of Good Hope, can see the sun at the same moment; and that he appears no larger to the one than to the other, though they are distant in a straight line more than 5000 miles from each other. We also know, from experience, that when we remove 50 or a hundred miles to the west of our usual place of residence, the sun appears, at his rising, just as large as he did before; and though we are removed from our friends several hundreds or even thousands of miles, they will tell us that the sun uniformly appears of the same size, at the same moment as he does to us. From these and similar considerations, it appears, that the sun must be at a very considerable distance from the earth, and consequently his real magnitude must be much greater

than his apparent, since all bodies appear less in size in proportion to their distance. If the distance of the sun were only 4000 miles from the earth, he would appear twice as large when he came to the meridian, as he did at his rising in the east; if his distance were only 100,000 miles, he would appear part broader when on the meridian than at his rising-but this is not found to be the case; consequently, the sun is more than 100,000 miles distant, and therefore must be of a very large size. Supposing him no farther distant than 100,000 miles, he behoved to be nearly a thousand miles in diameter, or about the size of Arabia or the United States of America.

To determine whether the sun be flat or convex, we must call in to our assistance the following ideas. Every round body which revolves around an axis, perpendicular to the line of vision, without altering its figure or apparent dimensions, is of a convex or globular shape;-and, Every object which appears of a circular shape near the centre of such a body, will assume an oval or elliptical form when it approaches near its margin. This might be illustrated by fixing a circular patch on a terrestrial globe, and turning it round till it appear near the margin. By means of the telescope, it is found that there are occasionally spots upon the sun, which appear first at the eastern limb, and, in the course of about 13 days, approach the western limb, where they disappear, and, in the course of another 13 days, reappear on the eastern limb; which shows that the sun revolves round an axis without altering his shape. It is also observed that a spot, which appears nearly circular at his centre, presents an oval figure when near his margin. Consequently, the sun is not a flat surface, as he appears at first sight, but a globular body. Again, suppose it was required to determine whether the sun or the moon be nearest the earth. The intermediate idea which requires to be recognised in this case is the following. Every body which throws a shadow on another is nearer the body on which the shadow falls than the luminous body which is the cause of the shadow. In an eclipse of the sun, the body of the moon projects a shadow upon the earth, by which either the whole or a portion of the sun's body is hid from our view. Consequently, the moon is interposed between us and the sun, and therefore is nearer to the earth than that luminary. This might be illustrated to the young by a candle, and two balls, the one representing the moon and the other the earth, placed in a direct line from the candle. —In like manner, were it required, when the moon is eclipsed, to ascertain whether at that time the earth or the moon be nearest to the sun, it might be determined by the same process of reason

ing; and, on the same principle, it is determined that the planets Mercury and Venus, when they transit the sun's disk, are, in that part of their orbits, nearer the earth than the sun is.

Such reasonings as the above might be familiarly explained, and, in some cases, illustrated by experiments; and the pupil occasionally requested to put the arguments into the form of a syllogism. The reasoning respecting the bulk of the sun may be put into the following syllogistic form:

All objects appear diminished in size in proportion to their dis

tances.

The sun is proved to be many thousands of miles distant, and consequently, diminished in apparent size.

Therefore the sun is much larger in reality than what he ap

pears.

The two first propositions are generally denominated the premises. The first is called the major proposition, the second the minor proposition. If the major proposition be doubtful, it requires to be proved by separate arguments or considerations. In the above example, it may be proved, or rather illustrated, to the young, by experiment-such as placing a 12-inch globe, or any similar body, at the distance of half a mile, when it will appear reduced almost to a point. If the minor, or second proposition be doubtful, it must likewise be proved, by such considerations as suggested above; or by a strictly mathematical demonstration, if the pupils are capable of understanding it. But, in the present case, the arguments above stated are quite sufficient to prove the point intended. When the premises are clearly proved, the conclusion follows as a matter of course. Similar examples of reasoning may be multiplied to an almost indefinite extent, and, in the exercise of instructing the young, they should always be taken from sensible objects with which they are acquainted.

As it would be quite preposterous to attempt instructing young persons, under the age of twelve or thirteen, in the abstract systems of logic generally taught in our universities-it is quite sufficient for all the practical purposes of human life and of science, that they be daily accustomed to employ their reasoning powers on the various physical, intellectual, and moral objects and circumstances which may be presented before them; and an enlightened and judicious teacher will seldom be at a loss to direct their attention to exercises of this kind. The objects of nature around them, the processes of art, the circumstances and exercises connected with their scholastic instruction, their games and amusements, the manner in which they conduct themselves towards each other, their practices in the streets or on the highways, and the general