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of expreffions, which from the relation they bear to its char racter, enlarge it more and more; and analogy becomes as it were a lamp, whofe light continually increases, to direct a greater number of writers. Then the public eye is natu rally fixed on those who diftinguifh themfelves from the crowd: the taste of thefe becomes the prevailing taste of the nation each perfon in the feveral fubjects to which he ap plies himself, ufes that difcernment which he learnt of those ingenious perfons: abilities begin to ferment: the several arts affume their proper character; and men of fuperior merit in every branch of learning make their appearance. Thus it is that great parts, of what kind foever, do not shew themselves till a language is confiderably improved. This is fo very true, that though fuch circumftances as favour the military and political arts, occur the most frequent, yet it is thofe ages which have been diftinguished for great writers, that are able to boast of generals and ministers of a fuperior rank. Such is the influence of letters over government; an influence whofe full extent does not feem as yet to have been rightly understood.

The work concludes with an enquiry into the caufe of error, and the origin of truth; matters, doubtless, of the utmost importance to all mankind. The cause of error, Mr. Condillac juftly observes, must be the habitude of reasoning on things of which we have either no ideas at all, or fuch as are very indeterminate: if error, therefore, owes its original to the defect of ideas, or to ideas not properly determined, truth must arife from determinate ideas. The best method of determining our ideas is to render our language clear and precife, which, in our author's opinion, can only be done by taking the materials of our knowledge once more in hand, and framing new combinations of them, without any regard to thofe already made.

If a man was to begin with framing a language, and determined not to enter into any conversation, till he had fixed the meaning of his words by particular circumftances, he would not fall into thofe mistakes to which we are fo rally fubject. The names of fimple ideas would be clear, genebecause they would fignify only what he perceived in par

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ticular circumstances: the names of complex ideas would be precife, because they would include only fuch fimple ideas as by particular circumstances would be collected in a determinate manner. In a word, if he wanted to add to, or retrench from his first combinations, the figns he made use of, would preferve the clearness of the former, provided that what he had added or retrenched was marked by new circumstances. If he had afterwards a mind to converfe with others, he would have occafion only to place them in the fame fituation as he himself had been, when he invented the figns, which would engage them to affix the fame ideas as he had done to the words.

What the Abbé here remarks concerning the difference of fubftances and architypes, is worthy the perufal of our readers. He then treats of the order which we ought to follow in the investigation of truth, where he obferves, that to acquire complex notions, our only method, as in the mathematics, is to make different collections of the fimple ideas. We must therefore follow the fame order in the progreffion of ideas, and use the fame precaution in the choice of figns. The right order therefore which we ought to pursue in the investigation of truth, confifts in afcending to the origin of our ideas, in unravelling their formation, and in compounding or decompounding them different ways, in order to compare them in every light that is capable of fhewing their relations.

I really believe (fays the Abbé) that if we rightly comprehended the progreffion of truths, we should have no need to 'look for arguments to demonftrate them, the bare propofing them being fufficient; for they would follow one another in fuch order, that whatever a fubfequent truth added to that which preceded, would be too fimple to have need of any • demonstration. Thus we fhould arrive at those which are more complex, and be furer of them than by any other way. We might even establish fo great a fubordination between the several ideas we had acquired, as to be able to pass, when we pleased, from the most complex to the most fimple, ⚫ or from the moft fimple to the most complex. We could hardly indeed forget them; or if this should happen, the

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• connexion fubfifting between them, would render them easy 2 to be retrieved.

In a word, (fays our author) whatever contributes to the enlarging of the mind, may, I think, be brought into this fhort compafs. The fenfes are the fource of human knowledge. The different fenfations, perception, confciousness, • reminiscence, attention and imagination, the two last con<fidered as not yet subject to our controul, are its materials : * memory, imagination, as subject to controul, reflexion, and * the other operations, employ these materials: the signs to which we are indebted for the habit of thefe very operations, ⚫ are the inftruments they make ufe of: and the connexion of ideas is the firft fpring which puts all the rest into motion. I fhall finifh with propofing the following problem. An • author's work being given, to determine the character and ex*tent of his understanding, and in confequence thereof to tell not only the talents of which he gives proofs, but likewife thofe which he is capable of acquiring: to take, for inftance, Corneille's • earliest performance, and to demonftrate that, when this poet wrote it, he was already possessed of, or at least would soon ac• quire those bright parts by which he merited fuch high applause. Nothing but an analysis of the work is capable of fhewing us the operations that produced it, and how far they were • exerted; and nothing but the analysis of these operations can make us distinguish the qualifications compatible in the fame man, from those which are otherwise, and thereby enable us < to give a folution to the problem. I queftion whether there are many problems more difficult than this.

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Thus ends Mr. Condillac's effay on the origin of human knowledge, a work of merit fufficient to excuse the extraordinary length of our extracts from it. We are fatisfied that in a performance of this nature, to quote only a few particular paffages may be looked on as scarce doing justice to the author, and that to abridge is to injure. More, however, we cou'd not lay before our readers, confiftently with the plan of this work; and lefs would have been infufficient to give them a full and precife idea of it.

ART.

ART. II. The Life of John Buncle, Efq; containing various Obfervations and Reflections, made in several parts of the World; and many extraordinary Relations. 8vo, Price. 65. NOON.

MR

R. John Bundle, who, we are afraid, hath promised more than he was able to perform, affnres his readers, in the preface to this performance, that they will find in it fome pleafing and fome furprising things: the latter of which he hath fully accomplished; but seems, at least in our opinion, to have deferr'd the former to another opportunity, as we could not, on the most careful perufal, meet with any thing that gave us the least pleasure throughout the whole. The book is a very thick octavo, confifting of no less than 511 pages (a dreadful profpect to the poor REVIEWERS) and contains a detail of trifling uninterefting facts, many of them highly improbable, and related by the author merely to introduce (which seems the chief motive of it's publication) fome crude and undigested notions concerning several controversial points of religion, which are handled without judgment or knowledge by Mifs Noel, Mifs Harcourt, Bob Berrisford, Jack Buncle, and. other illustrious perfonages of the drama: by a toe or two of this Hercules, our readers will be able to determine the beauty of the ftatue, For an inftance of the flowery ftile take the following;

⚫ On the glorious firft of August, before the beasts were roused ⚫ from their lodges, or the birds had foared upwards, to pour 'forth their morning harmony; while the mountains and the ⚫ groves were overshadowed by a dun obfcurity, and the dawn. • still dappled the drowsy east with spots of grey; in short, ⚫ before the fun was up, or, with his aufpicious presence, began to animate inferior nature, I left my chamber, and with ' my gun and dog, went out to wander over a pleasant country. The different afpects and the various points of view were charming, as the light in fleecy rings increased; and when the whole flood of day defcended, the imbellished 'early scene was a fine entertainment. Delighted with the 'beauties of this morning, I climbed up the mountains, and travelled through many a valley. The game was plenty,

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and for full five hours, I journeyed onward, without knowing where I was going, or thinking of a return to college.

About nine o'clock however I began to grow very hungry, &c. His manner of introducing the converfation with Mifs Noel, concerning the Hebrew language, is likewife curious.

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You will be pleafed to inform me, how Abraham and his fons converfed and commerced with the nations, if the Hebrew was not the univerfal language in their time? If the • miracle at Babel was a confusion of tongues, as is generally "fupposed, how did the holy family talk and act with such distant kings and people? Illuminate me, thou glorious girl in this dark article, and be my teacher in Hebrew learning, as I flatter myself you will be the guide and dirigent of all my notions and my days. Yes, charming Harriet, my fate is in your hands. Difpofe of it as you will, and make me what you please."

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If the reader is defirous to know Mifs Narl's opinion of Cherubim and Elohim, it is as follows; To talk of Cherubim and • Elohim (refumed Mifs Noel) and to fay all that ought to be faid (to speak to any purpose) of the three heads and four visages, the bull, the man, the lyon, and the eagle, mentioned in the prophet, requires more knowledge in Hebrew learning than I pretend to be mistress of, and must take up more time than there is now to spare. I may hereafter however, if you should chance to come again to our house, let you know my fancies. • upon these grand fubjects, and why I cannot accord with Mr. • Hutchinfon and my father, in their notion of the Cherubim's fignifying the unity of the effence, the diftinction of the persons, and man's being taken into the effence by his personal union with the fecond perfon, whofe conftant emblem was the lyon." This I confefs appears to my plain understanding very miferable stuff. I can fee no text either in the Old Teftament, or in the New, for a plurality of Beings, co-ordinate and independent. The facred pages declare there is One original per• felt mind. The Lord shall be king over all the earth. In that day there fhall be one Lord, and his name One; fays the prophet Zechariah, fpeaking of the prodigious revolution in the Gentile world, whence in procefs of time, by the gospel of Jefus Chrift, the worship of one true God fhall prevail all ' over the earth, as univerfally as polytheifm had done before.

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