It will be observed that to avoid unnecessary prolixity, I have in most of the above syllogisms suppressed one premiss, which the learner will be able easily to supply the same time obnoxious to objections, numerous, plausible, and by no means easy of solution. "There are objections" (said Dr. Johnson)" against a plenum and objections against a vacuum; but one of them must be true." He adds, that "sensible men, really desirous of discovering the truth, will perceive that reason directs them to examine first the argument in favor of that side of the question, where the first presumption of truth appears. And the presumption is manifestly in favor of that religious creed already adopted by the country. Their very earliest inquiry therefore must be into the direct arguments for the authority of that book on which their country rests its religion." But reasonable as such a procedure is, there is, as I have said, a strong temptation, and one which should be carefully guarded against, to adopt the opposite course; to attend first to the objections which are brought against what is established, and which, for that very reason, rouse the mind from a state of apathy. When Christianity was first preached, the state of things was reversed. "Seeing that all these things cannot be spoken against, ye ought to be quiet," was a sentiment which favored an indolent acquiescence in the old pagan worship. The stimulus of novelty was all on the side of those who came to overthrow this, by a new religion. The first inquiry of any one who at all attended to the subject must have been, not, What are the objections to Christianity-but, On what grounds do these men call on me to receive them as divine messengers? And the same appears to be the case with the Polynesians among whom our Missionaries are laboring: they begin by inquiring, - Why should we receive this religion? and those of them accordingly who have embraced it, appear to be Christians on much more rational and deliberate conviction than many among us, even of those who, in general maturity of intellect and civilization, are advanced considerably beyond those Islanders. I am not depreciating the inestimable advantages of a religious education; but, pointing out the peculiar temptations which accompany it. The Jews and Pagans had, in their early prejudices, greater difficulties to surmount, than ours; but they were difficulties of a different kind. for himself. E. G. In the early part of this analysis it will easily be seen, that the first of the series of cumulative arguments to prove that the propagators of Christianity did suffer, would at full length stand thus; "Whoever propagated a religion unwelcome to the Jews and to the Gentiles, was likely to suffer; The Apostles did this; Therefore they were likely to suffer," &c. &c. This It is also to be observed, that the same proposition used in different syllogisms may require to be differently expressed, by a substitution of some equivalent, in order to render the argument in each formally correct. of course is always allowable, provided the exact meaning be preserved: e. g. if the proposition be, "The persons who attested the Christian miracles underwent sufferings in attestation of them," I am authorized to state the same assertion in a different form, thus, "The Christian miracles are attested by men who suffered in attestation of their reality," &c. Great care however should be used to avoid being misled by the substitution of one proposition for another, when the two are not (though perhaps they sound so) really equivalent, so that the one warrants the assumption of the other. Lastly, the learner is referred to the Supplement to Chap. iii. 1, p. 78, where I have treated of the statement of a proposition as several distinct ones, each implying all the rest, but differing in the division of the Predicate from the Subject. Of this procedure the above analysis affords an instance. INDEX TO THE PRINCIPAL TECHNICAL TERMS. Absolute terms, page 101. Abstraction. The act of "drawing off" in thought, and attend- Abstract terms, 102. Accident. In its widest technical sense, any thing that is attributed - Affirmative - denotes the quality of a Proposition which asserts the - Analogous. A term is so called whose single signification applies Antecedent. That part of a Conditional Proposition on which the - Apprehension (simple.) The operation of the mind by which we Argument. — An expression in which, from something laid down as - Categorematic. A word is so called which may by itself be em- ployed as a Term, 47. Categorical Proposition is one which affirms or denies a Predicate Common term is one which is applicable in the same sense to Compatible terms, 101. Conclusion. That Proposition which is inferred from the Premises of an Argument, 21, 61. Concrete term, 102. --- Conditional Proposition is one which asserts the dependence of - Consequent. That part of a conditional Proposition which depends Consequence. The connexion between the Antecedent and Con- sequent of a conditional Proposition. (Consequentia), 91. Contradictory Propositions are those which, having the same Contrary Propositions—are two universals, affirmative and nega- Contrary terms, 104. Converse-58. Conversion of a Proposition — is the transposition of the terms, so - Copula. That part of a Proposition which affirms or denies the Definite terms, 102. Definition. An expression explanatory of that which is defined, - Difference (Differentia.) — The formal or distinguishing part of the Dilemma. A complex kind of conditional syllogism, having more |