( 69 ) 
and even the beft fyflem of Logick, confi- 
dered only as the art or inftrument of dif- 
putation, is more likely to confound truth 
than difcover it. A public logical difputa- 
tion refembles much the practice, in former 
times, of feeking truth by fmgle combat. 
He that was moft dexterous in the ufe of 
his weapons, whether a true or a falfe 
Knight, always proved victorious. Logick, 
I think, might as well have marched into 
oblivion with Knight-errantry,. Jufts and 
Tournaments. Neverthelefs, if I divefl Lo- 
gick of its Ariftotelian jargon; if I call it 
the art of thinking^ not of wrangling-, or ra- 
ther, if I call it not an art but zfcience, the 
knowledge of myfelf, of the origin and pro- 
grefs of my own ideas j a fyftem of Logick 
will then appear a delineation, a chart of 
the human underftanding, and confequently 
an object highly deferving my attention. 
But fuppofe it to be of no ufe as an in- 
ftrument of inveftigation, it is univerfally 
confidered as a branch of Academical learn- 
ing; no young gentleman therefore would 
run the rifk of appearing ignorant of Lo- 
gick as an art, its terms, and conftruclion. 
Befides, as the Univerfities chufe to make it 
E 3 the 
