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

394 LF-TTER?, TRACTS, 3sV:we have heard fo pitiful an indictment read, did"therefore right in (o far. Vv^ith great propriety, hepronounced logics and metaphyrics to be drowfy fcicnces; but he fnould alfo have ihcwn the danger ofthem ; for every lioneit man, every wcU-wilher ofreligion, fliould ilrive, if poflible, to bring fuch perniciousfciences into abfolute difgrace ; or, if thatcannot yet be done, to prevent the fpreading of thatfpurious and difpntatious learning, which mifleadsthe underftanding, corrupts the heart, fubverts religion,introduces fcepticifm and gloomy infidelity, andmars the great intercfts and comforts of mankind.Thefe fciences never taught any man to fpeak orthink jufcly. You fliall hear a logician, in fpeakingof a criminal procefs, abfurdly diftinguifii betweena trial and a profecution ; and one v/ha knows thegeometry of vifibies, vilibly, deficient in commonlenfe.Chnj>. 22. This gentleman was liftened to with filentattention ; and it Appeared that the refl of thecompany, who were all citizens of Clutha, nearly a-greed with him in the fentiments he had delivered,ril lay my life,faid one of them, that the difparagingexpreifions about logic and metaphyfics are at the bottomof this procefs, and have raifed the dudgeon ofthefe metaphyficians fifty times more than the twoexpreifions pretended to be difrefpe£tful pf religion :But why at this time of day fuch a fputter about thefeobfolete and unintelligible fciences ? In times of ignorancethey might poifibly be efbeemed j. but theman who would now recommend them to the publicefieem, comes by far too late •, for, except in the cellsof monks, or colleges of pedants, they bear no value,and are never fo much as fpoken of. The art of reafoningis a gift of nature, and the rules of logic aieof uie to none but thofe who can reafon well enoughwithout them; and many fpecim.ens of juil reafoningwere ^iven before logic was reduced |p principles.