288 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



difference between his position and that of Descartes. So he reverted 

 to the old formalities of logic, and, above all, abstract definitions played 

 a great part in his philosophy. It was quite natural, therefore, that 

 on observing that the method of Descartes labored under the difficulty 

 that we may seem to ourselves to have clear apprehensions of ideas 

 which in truth are very hazy, no better remedy occurred to him than to 

 require an abstract definition of every important term. Accordingly, 

 in adopting the distinction of clear and distinct notions, he described 

 the latter quality as the clear apprehension of everything contained 

 in the definition ; and the books have ever since copied his words. 

 There is no danger that his chimerical scheme will ever a^ain be over- 

 valued. Nothing new can ever be learned by analyzing definitions. 

 Nevertheless, our existing beliefs can be set in order by this process, 

 and order is an essential element of intellectual economy, as of every 

 other. It may be acknowledged, therefore, that the books are right in 

 making familiarity with a notion the first step toward clearness of 

 apprehension, and the defining of it the second. But in omitting all 

 mention of any higher perspicuity of thought, they simply mirror a phi- 

 losophy which was exploded a hundred years ago. That much-admired 

 "ornament of lotnc" the doctrine of clearness and distinctness 

 may be pretty enough, but it is high time to relegate to our cabinet of 

 curiosities the antique bijou, and to wear about us something better 

 adapted to modern uses. 



The very first lesson that we have a right to demand that logic shall 

 teach us is, how to make our ideas clear; and a most important one it 

 is, depreciated only by minds who stand in need of it. To know what 

 we think, to be masters of our own meaning, will make a solid foun- 

 dation for great and weighty thought. It is most easily learned by 

 those whose ideas are meagre and restricted ; and far happier they 

 than such as wallow helplessly in a rich mud of conceptions. A 

 nation, it is true, may, in the course of generations, overcome the dis- 

 advantage of an excessive wealth of language and its natural con- 

 comitant, a vast, unfathomable deep of ideas. "We may see it in his- 

 tory, slowly perfecting its literary forms, sloughing at length its 

 metaphysics, and, by virtue of the untirable patience which is often a 

 compensation, attaining great excellence in every branch ef mental 

 acquirement. The page of history is not yet unrolled which is to tell 

 us whether such a people will or will not in the long-run prevail over 

 one whose ideas (like the words of their language) are few, but which 

 possesses a wonderful mastery over those which it has. For an 

 individual, however, there can be no question that a few clear ideas 

 are worth more than many confused ones. A young man would 

 hardly be persuaded to sacrifice the greater part of his thoughts to 

 save the rest ; and the muddled head is the least apt to see the neces- 

 sity of such a sacrifice. Him we can usually only commiserate, as a 

 pei*son with a congenital defect. Time will help him, but intellectual 



