we mean the different ways in which reasons may be placed before us. The strength of an argument must depend upon the soundness of its principles: but the readiness with which that strength is perceived, will depend very often upon the manner in which the argument may be presented to the mind. Hence, different arguments are drawn up in different forms, according to the subjects discussed, and the character of the audience to whom they are addressed. These different forms chiefly refer to the method, and the style. To be able to reason with the greatest effect, we should study not only the rules of logic, but also the rules of grammar, and endeavour to acquire a facility of expressing the same ideas in different words. Dr. Watts, in his Improvement of the Mind, has given us some rules for the acquisition of this useful talent :— "1. Accustom yourselves to read those authors who think and write with great clearness and evidence, such as convey their ideas into your understanding, as fast as your eye or tongue can run over their sentences: this will imprint upon the mind a habit of imitation; we shall learn the style with which we are very conversant, and practise it with ease and success. "2. Get a distinct and comprehensive knowledge of the subject which you treat of; survey it on all sides, and make yourself perfect master of it; then you will have all the sentiments that relate to it in your view, and under your command, and your tongue will very easily clothe those ideas with words which your mind has first made so familiar and easy to itself. Scribendi recte sapere est et principium et fons, HOR. de Arte Poet. Good teaching from good knowledge springs; "3. Be well skilled in the language which you speak; acquaint yourself with all the idioms and special phrases of it, which are necessary to convey the needful ideas on the subject of which you treat, in the most various and most easy manner to the understanding of the hearer: the variation of a phrase in several forms is of admirable use to instruct; it is like turning all sides of the subject to view; and if the learner happens not to take in the ideas in one form of speech, probably another may be successful for that end. Upon this account I have always thought it a useful manner of instruction, which is used in some Latin schools, which they call variation. Take some plain sentence in the English tongue, and then turn it into many forms in Latin; * as, for instance, A wolf let into the sheep-fold will devour the sheep: If you let a wolf into the fold, the sheep will be devoured: The wolf will devour the sheep, if the sheep-fold be left open: If the fold be not left shut carefully, the wolf will devour the sheep: The shee will be devoured by the wolf, if it find the way into the fold open: There is no defence of the sheep from the wolf, unless it be kept out of the fold: A slaughter will be made among the sheep, if the wolf can get into the fold. Thus, by turning the active voice of verbs into the passive, and the nominative case of nouns into the accusative, and altering the connexion of short sentences by different adverbs or conjunctions, and by ablative cases with a preposition brought instead of the nominative, or by participles sometimes put instead of the verbs, the negation of and the contrary, instead of the assertion of the thing first proposed, a great variety of forms of speech will be created, which shall express the same sense. "4. Acquire a variety of words, a copia verborum. Let your memory be rich in synonymous terms, or words expressing the same happy effect with the variation of the same thing: this will not only attain the phrases in the foregoing direction, but it will add a beauty also to your style, by securing you from an appearance of tautology, or repeating the same words too often, which sometimes may disgust the ear of the learner. 66 5. Learn the art of shortening your sentences, by dividing a long complicated period into two or three small ones. When others connect and join two or three sentences in one by relative pronouns, as which, whereof, wherein, whereto, &c., and by parentheses frequently inserted, do you rather divide them into distinct periods; or at least, if they must be united, let it be done rather by conjunctions and copulatives, that they may appear like distinct sentences, and give less confusion to the hearer or reader. "I know no method so effectual to learn what I mean, as to take now and then some page of an author, who is guilty of such a long involved parenthetical style, and translate it into plainer English, by dividing the ideas or the sentences asunder, and multiplying the periods, till the language become smooth and easy, and intelligible at first reading. "6. Talk frequently to young and ignorant persons upon subjects which are new and unknown to them, and be diligent to inquire whether they understand you or not; this will put you upon changing your phrases and forms of speech in a variety, till you can hit their capacity, and convey your ideas into their understanding." Watts's Improvement of the Mind. *This can be done in English as well as in Latin. See Lindley Murray's Exercises. SECTION I. DESCRIPTIVE REASONING. I MUST tell you what I mean by descriptive reasoning. I mean a description which forms part of a piece of reasoning. I told you at the commencement of my book that any fact in history, or any object in nature, might become the subject of an argument. Now then, if we describe an object with a view to reason about it, I call that descriptive reasoning. For example, were a lecturer on anatomy to describe the eye, with the view of showing its construction to his pupils, that would be a description, and nothing more. Were a theologian to describe the eye in order to show that it must have had an intelligent author, then the description would become a piece of descriptive reasoning. Archdeacon Paley has done this :— "Observe a new-born child first lifting up its eyelids. What does the opening of the curtain discover! The anterior part of two pellucid globes, which, when they come to be examined, are found to be constructed upon strict optical principles; the selfsame principles upon which we ourselves construct optical instruments. We find them perfect for the purpose of forming an image by refraction; composed of parts executing different offices: one part having fulfilled its office upon the pencil of light delivering it over to the action of another part; that to a third, and so onward: the progressive action depending for its success upon the nicest and minutest adjustment of the parts concerned; yet these parts so in fact adjusted, as to produce, not by a simple action or effect, but by a combination of actions and effects, the result which is ultimately wanted. And forasmuch as this organ would have to operate under different circumstances, with strong degrees of light, and with weak degrees, upon near objects, and upon remote ones, and these differences demanded, according to the laws by which the transmission of light is regulated, a corresponding diversity of structure; that the aperture, for example, through which the light passes, should be larger or less; the lenses rounder or flatter, or that their distance from the tablet, upon which the picture is delineated, should be shortened or lengthened; this, I say, being the case, and the difficulty to which the eye was to be adapted, we find its several parts capable of being occasionally changed, and a most artificial apparatus provided to produce that change."-Paley's Natural Theology. In all our reasonings, great use is made of description. When a member of parliament proposes a new law, he commences with describing the present state of the law, shows what improvement is necessary, and then proposes his remedy. A barrister opens his address to the jury by a statement of the case; this statement is descriptive; and descriptions of past events, and of good and bad characters, form a large portion of the addresses from the pulpit. In long speeches, generally, there is often much minute detail, and reporters who cut down these speeches for the newspapers usually shorten or omit the descriptions. The reasoning process by which the description is connected with the point to be proved, may exist only in the mind, or it may be expressed in a subsequent stage of the argument. I. A description is a statement of the particular circumstances by which persons, places, and objects, are distinguished from other persons, places, and objects. The description of a person sometimes refers only to his figure and countenance. "Leah was tender-eyed, but Rachael was beautiful and well-favoured." "Joseph was a goodly person, and well-favoured.” "In all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty; from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head, there was no blemish in him." "The stature of William the Conqueror was tall, and the composition of his bones and muscles uncommonly strong." "The exterior of Henry V., as well as his deportment, was engaging. His stature was somewhat above the middle size. His countenance beautiful, his limbs genteel and slender, but full of vigour." Descriptions of a person sometimes refer only to appearance, manners, or habits. "And he said unto them, What manner of man was he which came up to meet you, and told you these words? And they answered him, He was an hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins. And he said, It is Elijah the Tishbite."—2 Kings, i. 7, 8. The poet Southey, in Dec. 1823, went to hear Mr. Hill preach, who, at that date, must have been seventy-nine years of age. The following description is extracted from one of his letters: 66 6 ́Rowland, a fine tall old man, with strong features, very like his portrait, began by reading three verses for his text, stooping to the book in a very peculiar manner. Having done this, he stood up erect, and said, "Why, the text is a sermon, and a very weighty one too." I could not always follow his delivery, the loss of his teeth rendering his words sometimes indistinct, and the more so, because his pronunciation is peculiar, generally giving e the sound of ai, like the French. His manner was animated and striking, sometimes impressive and dignified, always remarkable, and so powerful a voice I have rarely or never heard. Sometimes he took off his spectacles, frequently stooped down to read a text, and on these occasions, he seemed to double his body, so high did he stand. He told one or two familiar stories, and used some odd expressions, such as, "A murrain on those who preach, that, when we are sanctified, we do not grow in grace! And again, "I had almost said I had rather see the devil in the pulpit than an Antinomian." The purport of his sermon was good; nothing fanatical, nothing enthusiastic; and the Calvinism it expressed was so qualified as to be harmless. The manner, that of a performer, as great in his line as Kean or Kemble; and the manner it is which has attracted so large a congregation about him, all of the better order of persons in business.' -Sherman's Anecdotes of Rowland Hill. 66 Sometimes the description of a person refers to his mental faculties or attainments. Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Beth-lehemite, that is cunning in playing, and a mighty valiant man, and a man of war, and prudent in matters, and a comely person, and the Lord is with him."-1 Sam. xvi. 18. "JOHN WESLEY AT OXFORD.-At college he continued his studies with all diligence, and was noticed there for his attainments, and especially for his skill in logic, by which he frequently put to silence those who contended with him in after life. No man, indeed, was ever more dexterous in the art of reasoning. A charge was once brought against him that he delighted to perplex his opponents by his expertness in sophistry. He repelled it with indignation. It has been my first care,' says he, 'to see that my cause was good, and never either in jest or earnest to |