Notices respecting Neiv Books. 145 



consist too much in artificial rules, fell short of the philosophy of 

 the art. Such, indeed, was the authority of this philosopher 

 (an extraordinary man after all), that in logic and metaphysics 

 he for many vears entirely swayed the English and Scottish uni- 

 versities, as he did those of all Europe, till tliey came to the 

 chapter of Ethics, where, having, according: to the theology of 

 most of the reformed churches, embraced the doctrine of Or/gincf^ 

 Sin, they abandoned the Aristotelian for another standard*. 

 Then Bacon came ; and with his powerful thoughts, varied 

 reading, and brilliant compositions — and never perhaps in the 

 same man was there a more extraordinary combination, so rich 

 and multiform — and gave irresistible weight to the cause ; a phi- 

 losopher, often too much of a politician, and, in his turn, noS 

 to be uniformly admired, nor explicitly followed. 



*' But though Bacon's and Locke's writings proceed upon a 

 larger scale, for the purpose of philosophical inquiry, logic is 

 still incidentally taught in our colleges, and syllogism still fol- 

 lowed in our schools. Various books were published on the sub- 

 ject at Oxford ; and Burgersdicius was republished at the uni- 

 versity press of Cambridgef. But perhaps the best system of 

 logic, or, at least, that most favourably now received at Cam- 

 bridge, is little more than an abridgment of Locke's EssayJ. 

 This must suffice for logic and metaphvsics. 



" But, we must not close this article without noticing the me- 

 taphysico-matiiematical Demonstration of the Being and At- 

 tributes of God, by Dr. Samuel Clarke. It has obtained many 

 admirers at Cambridge, as a subtle, elaborate performance ; but 

 the arguments of it were far from being approved by the meta- 

 physicians of his age, and were probably not satisfactory to 

 himself. We should remark, that Spinoza and Mirabaud § 

 have employed the same arguments to prove the eternal exist- 

 ence, &c. of matter, which Doctor Clarke applies to spirit ; 

 and, in short. Dr. Law has shown, that the subject is not ca- 



• Arisfoteles priinum quasi fundamentum felicitatis, virtutis, deliberationis 

 bonae, etelectionis, uoiistituit rationem humanatn, per se puram, integram, et iii- 

 corruptam. 



N'jS itaq. qulbiis ex agnita vcritate revelatum est, hominnm bene intelligenJi, 

 volendi, deliberandi, et as:endi facultatem a lapsii primsvo penitus dcstitiit.ini 

 e>se, ab Aristotelis sententia de felicitatis, virtutiini et bouarum actionum t'mida- 

 mento recedereco;rimiir. — Thesis Philosuphica, 1599. 



f Fr. Burgersdicii Iiistitutioniitn Losjicarum Libri duo were first published at 

 Leyden two or three years after Lord Bacon's Novum Organon, and reprinted at 

 Cambridge in 16G8. 



J Duncan's I^gic. 



§ Descartes, Pascal, le Doctenr Clarke lui-meme, ont 6l6 accuse d'Atheismf, 

 par Us Theologiens d(; leurs tems ; cc qui n'einpeclie point que Us thfologims anii- 

 ti'fuens ne fasten/ wnx^e Ac. lour preuves, et ne les donnent v;i)iniin? tri-s v.ilabli'". — 

 fiy iftire de la Nature, part. sec. chap. 4. 



Vol. 4.J. No. 202. Fe^ 181"). K pahle 



