4oS ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book V. 



* If,' fays ilie, * you counfel what Is jufl:, men will hate you ; if what 



* is unjuft, the Gods.' For the argument may be turned contrarywife, 

 in this manner : ' If you counfel what is unjuft, men will love you ; 



* if what is juft, the Gods ;' And the conclufion will be quite oppofite, 

 namely* that you ought to be a public fpeaker. And thus, Ariftotle 

 takes care to inform us, when the topic is inconclufive, or. when it is 

 ambiguous, and proving either way. 



From thefe inftances, it is hoped the nature of this kind of dialec- 

 tical or topical argumentation, will be fufficiently evident, tirft, I 

 muft know of the thing in queftion certain qualities or properties ; 

 for, as Ariftotle obferves, if I know nothing at all of the fubjed:, I 

 can form no argument concerning it. Aftliming, therefore, fome parti- 

 cular propofition concerning it, either from common belief, or the con- 

 ceflion of my adverfary, I try whether from thence I cannot draw fome 

 conclufion by the means of fome general propofition or topic tending 

 to eftablifh what I would be at. Thefe general propofitions may be 

 called the axioms of this art ; and they fo far refemble the axioms of 

 geometry, that, as thefe are applicable to all kinds of lines and figures, 

 and many of them to every fubje£t of quantity, fo the topics may be 

 applied to every fubjedt of difputation, of whatever kind. 



Another thing is alfo evident from what has been faid, — That 

 this art is of univerfal ufe, not only in public fpeaking, but in 

 our private intercourfe with men ; for it is the only way we can argue 

 with them upon the fuhje£t of any art or fcience which they have not 

 learned. But, it is to bcobferved, that, though the ftudy of Ariftotle's 

 art will, no doubt, furnifti a great number of topics, yet, the ready 

 ufe of them will chiefly depend upon our natural fagacity in perceiving 

 what is confequent, or what follows from what, and what is contradic- 

 tory or repugnant. With a great deal of this natural fagacity, men 



who 



