The works of the Rev. William Thom, late minister ... - waughfamily.ca

LETTERS, TRACTS, tifr. 309much at: Mod of the feflTion is ftill confumed inteaching fyllogifms ; but tlie old practice of defendingand impugning thefe has ahogether gone into defuetude.This feems very (Irange. Why take up folong time about fyllogifms, and not teach the ftudentsthe pra£lice of difputing ? If this laft is confefled tobe ufelefs, the firfl mull be fo too. If there was reafonthat the one ffiould fall to the ground, there wasthe fame reafon that the other fhould have fallen alongwith it. This is fuch an inconfiftency, that had youknown it, or attended to it, I- believe you would havebeen ready enough to mention it, and perhaps to expatiateupon it.I call it an inconfiftency in teaching ; becaufe it isperhaps no lofs to the fcholars that difputing is cometo an end : It might bring them in conceit with quibbling,and teach them to be litigious, which wouldbe neither to their honour nor their profit. A learnedJefuit, fome of whofe writings fell in my way along while ago, makes hirnfelf merry with a certainnation that lies fome where on the weft fide of England,who, he fays, are all born logicians. They arecontinually employed about the univerfals, the ens ra^tionisy and the metaphyfical degrees : They feed onchimeras, and enter furioully into the difpulcs of thefchools.- Gens ratione furens, et mentem pafta chimasris.However, in his judgment, they are at leaft.no betterqualified for the arts either of peace or war than theirneighbours v/ho have no fuch quibbling or polemicaldifpofition.My opinion about the ordinary logic and metaphyflcsis perhaps not very much diiferent from this gentleman'sand from yours ; but I like not to fay {okeen things againft them as you have done. I chooferather to exprefs my fcntiments in the words of anoble author of exquifite tafte, whofe judgment iseiteemed corre6^, and was once highly revered in thia