MEMOIR OF ARISTOTLE. 
87 
Rhetoric and Poetics, with their accessory and colla- 
teral sciences. Dialectic, or the art of reasoning, 
taken in its widest sense, is the method of deducing 
the probabilities on either side of a question, so framed 
as to involve one of two contradictory propositions 
in the answer, according as the affirmative or nega- 
tive side is adopted. No part of scholastic science 
stood more in need of amendment than this ; and 
accordingly his treatise on the subject is the refor- 
mation of the irregular and confused system in use 
before his time. Not only does he explain the ge- 
neral notion of the science, as the art of defending or 
impugning an opinion ; ho takes a wider and more 
philosophical view, by investigating the grounds both 
in the structure of language and the connexion of 
thought, on which all arguments must rest. 
, This art presented a field for the display of singular 
acuteness, and it was carried by Aristotle to a degree 
of perfection beyond what any before him had con- 
ceived. He pointed out the method by which the 
defender of a thesis might be invincible, and taught 
the opponent to shew no less insuperable skill in his 
attacks ; so that every question could easily be per- 
plexed with endless disputation, and all reasoning 
made to revolve in a circle. To excel in the ma- 
nagement of the syllogism was the pride and glory 
of the sclmols in the dark ages ; but the extravagant 
height to which it was carried, was an impediment 
to knowledge, and a burlesque on moral science. 
This, however, was an abuse of the system, and 
