PREFACE. 



THE following Notes were originally collected 

 to assist a most stubborn and capricious 

 memory, which retained nothing if studied sys- 

 tematically or by any tedious process, yet could 

 readily apprehend distinct facts and principles 

 if disencumbered of all superfluous words, and 

 subsequently, by. .a sort of mental re-action, 

 connect and digest them. Truths, however 

 remote in appearance, have among themselves 

 a necessary relation and connexion, extremely 

 favourable to the powers of memory and ap- 

 prehension, whereas errors are commonly so 

 many insulated propositions. Had the author, 

 in preparing them for publication, adopted the 

 method which he practically found most bene- 

 ficial, he would have arranged them at cross 

 purposes, making each successive Note a per- 

 fect contrast to its predecessor ; but as this 

 a.2 



