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tor can never make any direct use in his works ; will not the 

 perusal of works on taste and criticism be sufficient to give 

 him that strength of conception and justness of thought, 

 which is so much insisted on, as being requisite for all men ?" 

 To this it may be answered, that at the period best adapted 

 for the strengthening of the faculties, the mind scarcely knows 

 any other evidence but that of sense, and is perplexed and 

 confused at the simplest abstract question ; any attempt 

 therefore to turn the mind immediately, and without prepa- 

 ration, to a study abounding in minute and subtle distinctions, 

 where the medii termini are perhaps never intuitively con- 

 nected with the extremes, or with each other, must be at- 

 tended with extreme labour and difficulty. The conclusions, 

 never drawn with demonstrative force, would to such a mind^ 

 appear entirely unsatisfactory, nay, without a previous ac- 

 quaintance Avith logic, he would be unable, from the diffuse 

 style in which such compositions are generally^ written, tO' 

 comprehend the tendency of the argument, or perceive whe- 

 ther the induction be fairly made from the particular in- 

 stances previously laid down as the foundations of a theory.. 

 li: has been remarked, as a signal instance of the wisdom and- 

 benevolence of the Deitv, t^hat darkness conves not on us- 

 suddenly ; we ^are prepared for the cliange by the gradual de-- 

 crease of light, until at length the moon almost impercepti-' 

 bly resumes her station in the heavens. In such gradation- 

 should we arrange the succession of studies for the enlisjhten- 

 ing of the mental eye, we should not plunge it at once from 



