,o8 



jects. Even where there is no apparent object for reflection, 

 in the movements of unrestrained reverie, the suggestions of 

 the muse are often most propitious : Cowper seems to hint 

 that no inconsiderable portion of his beautiful poem, the 

 Task, was composed during the Hstless musings that attend 

 a single person, when he has taken his solitary seat by an 

 evening fire. To these we might perhaps add the circum- 

 stances, which Bacon, in the first, third and fourth instances 

 of what he calls idola tribus, enumerates as prejudicial to the 

 interests of philosoph}'. 



If we should now proceed to examine all those less impor- 

 tant differences that arise from the peculiar modes of philo- 

 sophical and polite composition, it would not only extend 

 this essay to an improper length, but perhaps subject the 

 writer to the necessity of intruding himself into ground al- 

 ready pre-occupied by formal treatises on the subject. Un- 

 equal as he is to enter on questions of delicate criticism, and 

 too conscious of his own inability to venture into a competi- 

 tion with others of character deservedly high, he has re- 

 trenched several parts that might be claimed as their exclusive 

 property. And where the subject is of long continuance,, 

 and almost invites discussion from its nature, it is almost im- 

 possible to advance any thing valuable or important without 

 incurring the danger of repetition. 'Jims an objection has 

 been urged by Locke, and renewed with Fcdoubled force by 

 Warburton, that all figurative language is an abuse of words,, 

 that whatever exceeds the strict bounds of logical and meta- 



