Chap. 14.] [ 481 ] 



CHAP. XIV. 



OF REASONING*. 



Common Sen/e; v<jbat.-~Defefli--ue Reafoning. Analogical Rtqfin- 

 ing. Wrong Data.PIeafures of Reafoning* 



REASONING may be defined a chain of judg- 

 ments, following and depending upon one another, 

 by which fome general conclufion is attempted f, 



The defign of this chapter will principally be to 

 exhibit fome detached obfervations, fuch as may fup- 

 ply us with a few cautions againft the moft common 

 defects in reafoning, which will be found in general to 

 depend upon a falfe or unnatural aflbciation of ideas. 

 Thus, repeated obfervation of the proper and ufual 

 relations of things produces a prefumption in the mind, 

 that thofe which are accidental may be equally well 

 founded ; and this appears to be the undoubted caufe 

 of what is called prejudice. 



When the train of ideas flows in its natural courfey 

 that is, according to the true relations of things, then 



* With this chapter the third divifion,pr the mifcellaneous part 

 of this book, commences. 



f " Senfe and memory are but knowledge of fact, which is a 

 thing paft and irrevocable; fcience is the knowledge of confe- 

 quences, and the dependence of one fact upon another, by which, 

 out of what we can prefently do, we know how to do fome- 

 thing elfe when we will, or the like another time," Hobbes 

 Leviath. pt. i. c, 5. 



VOL. III. I i the 



