22 LECTURE I. 



which we deduce opinions. On the form- 

 ation and importance of opinions, I have 

 already taken the Hberty of expressing my 

 sentiments before to this assembly, to which 

 I now beg leave to add, that there are 

 many who think clearly, who do not think 

 deeply ; and they have greatly the advan- 

 tage in expressing themselves ; for their 

 thoughts are generally simple and easy of 

 apprehension. Opinions immediately de- 

 duced from any series or assemblage of facts 

 may be called primary opinions, and they 

 become types or representatives of the 

 facts from which they are formed, and, like 

 the facts themselves, admit of assortment, 

 comparison, and inference ; so that from 

 them we deduce ulterior opinions, till at 

 length, by a kind of intellectual calculation, 

 we obtain some general total, which in like 

 manner becomes the representative and co- 

 efficient of all our knowledge, with relation 

 to the subject thus examined and considered. 

 In proportion to the pains we have taken 

 in this algebraical process of the mind, and 

 our assurance of its correctness, so do we 

 contemplate the conclusion or consum- 



