C 249 3 

 XL 



THE PLAN 



O F A 



COMMON-PLACE BOOK, 



By J. H. HARINGTON, Efq. 



TV /TR. LOCKE efteemed his Method of a Common -place book " fo 

 e * mean a thing, as not to deferve publishing in an age full of ufeful 

 •' inventions," but was induced to make it publick at the requeft of a friend* 

 This perhaps mould have deterred me from offering a paper of the fame de« 

 nomination to a Society inftituted for inquiring into the more effential parts 

 of literature; yet, flnce Mr. Locke bears teltimony to the utility of his 

 method after five and twenty years* experience, and fi nee whatever may tend 

 to aflift the acquifition of knowledge, cannot, I conceive, be deemed unde- 

 ferving of attention, I venture to fubmit the plan of a Common-place book, 

 which has occurred to me, founded on Mr. Locke's, but calculated, I 

 think, to obviate an inconvenience, to which his is fubject. 



On confiderino the Method d.fcribed and recommended by Mr. Locke, 

 it appeared to me, that the number of words, having the fame initial let- 

 ters and following vowels, might frequently make it tedious to find a par- 

 ticular head, if noted in the Index by a numerical reference to the page on- 

 ly; and that the fime caufe'rni^ht render it difficult to afcertain, whether 

 any particular head had been entered. For inftance, balm, bark, bard, bat* 



Hh 



