DEFINITION AND PROVINCE OF LOGIC. 5 



great logician, or a man of powerful logic, not for the 

 accuracy of his deductions, but for the extent of his 

 command over premisses; because the general proposi- 

 tions required for explaining a difficulty or refuting a 

 sophism, copiously and promptly occur to him ; as in 

 the case of Chillingworth, or Samuel Johnson. Whe- 

 ther, therefore, we conform to the practice of those 

 who have made the subject their particular study, 

 or to that of popular writers and common discourse, 

 the province of logic will include several operations of 

 the intellect not usually considered to fall within the 

 meaning of the terms Reasoning and Argumentation. 

 These various operations might be brought within 

 the compass of the science, and the additional advan- 

 tage be obtained of a very simple definition, if, by an 

 extension of the term, sanctioned by high authorities, 

 we were to define logic as the science which treats of 

 the operations of the human understanding in the pur- 

 suit of truth. For to this ultimate end, naming, clas- 

 sification, definition, and all the other operations over 

 which logic has ever claimed jurisdiction, are essen- 

 tially subsidiary. They may all be regarded as con- 

 trivances for enabling a person to know the truths 

 which are needful to him, and to know them at the 

 precise moment at which they are needful. Other 

 purposes, indeed, are also served by these operations ; 

 for instance, that of imparting our knowledge to 

 others. But, viewed with regard to this purpose, they 

 have never been considered as within the province of 

 the logician. The sole object of Logic is the guidance 

 of one's own thoughts ; the communication of those 

 thoughts to others falls under the consideration of 

 Rhetoric, in the large sense in which that art was 

 conceived by the ancients ; or of the still more exten- 

 sive art of Education. Logic takes cognizance of all 



