STUDY X. 523 



"This Law, as we fliall fee, extends alfo to mo- 

 sals. Every truth, the truths of fad excepted, is 

 the refuk of two contrar)'- ideas. From this it fol- 

 lows, that as often as we decompound a truth, by 

 dialedtics, we divide it into the two ideas of which 

 it is conftituted; and if we confine ourfelves to 

 one of it*s elementary ideas, as to a detached prin- 

 ciple, and deduce confequences from it,' we fliall 

 convert it into a fource of endlefs difputation -, for 

 the other elementary idea will abundantly fupply 

 confequences diametrically oppofite to the perfon 

 who is difpofed to purfue them; and thefe confe- 

 quences are themfelves fufceptible of contradidory 

 decompofitions, which go on without end. The 

 Schools are admirably adapted to inftrud us how 

 to manage this procefs ; and thither are we fent to 

 form our judgment. There are we taught to fe- 

 parate the moft evident truths not only into two, 

 but, as Hudibras fays, into four. If, for example, 

 fome one of our Logicians, obferving that cold 

 had an influence on vegetation, fliould think pro- 

 per to maintain, that cold is the only caufe of it, 

 and that heat is even inimical to it, he would take 

 care, no doubt, to quote the efflorefcenccs and the 

 vegetations of ice, the growth, the verdure, and 

 the flowering of moflfes in Winter ; plants burnt 

 up by the heat of the Sun, in Summer, and many 

 other effeCls relative to his thefis. But his antago- 

 nifl:, availing himfeif, on his fide, of the influences 



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