4. The following are erroneous reasonings in relation to this principle.

He

Saul, the king of Israel, was Amalekites, and their cattle. kites but not their cattle. he had obeyed the command. was equal to the whole.

commanded to destroy the He destroyed the Amaleafterwards contended that He considered that a part

When a public body, or society governed jointly by a number of managers, is prosperous, each manager will take to himself a high degree of credit for having caused

that prosperity. On the other hand, when the society becomes involved in difficulties, each manager is anxious to show that no part of the blame belongs to him; thus the totals of the praise or blame which each manager is willing to take to himself is more or less than the total that belongs to the whole body. It should be recollected in such cases that, whether of applause or censure, the total of all the parts cannot be either more or less than the whole.

Mr. Caudle having lent a friend five pounds, Mrs. Caudle enumerates four or five ways in which this amount might have been employed, and then concludes that the lending of this one sum of five pounds has subjected her to all those privations,

You ought to be very rich, Mr. Caudle. I wonder who'd lend you five pounds? But so it is: a wife may work and may slave! Ha, dear! the many things that might have been done with five pounds. As if people picked up money in the street! But you always were a fool, Mr. Caudle! I've wanted a black satin gown these three years, and that five pounds would have pretty well bought it. All the girls want bonnets, and where they're to come from I can't tell. Half five pounds would have bought 'em—but now they must go without. Next Tuesday the fire-insurance is due. I should like to know how it's to be paid. Why, it can't be paid at all. That five pounds would have just done it—and now, insurance is out of the question. I did think we might go to Margate this summer. There's poor little Caroline, I'm sure she wants the sea. But no, dear creature! she must stop at home-all of us must stop at home-she'll go into a consumption, there's no doubt of that; yes, sweet little angel! I've made up my mind to lose her, now. The child might have been saved; but people can't save their children and throw away their five pounds too."

Dean Swift, in his sarcastic "Advice to Servants," counsels them to act on the same fallacy.

σε

The cook, the butler, the groom, the market-man, and every other servant who is concerned in the expenses of the family, should act as if his master's whole estate ought to be applied to that servant's particular business. For instance, if the cook computes his master's estate to be a thousand pounds a-year, he reasonably concludes, that a thousand pounds a-year will afford meat enough, and therefore he need not be sparing; the butler makes the same judgment, so may the groom and the coachman; and thus every branch of expense will be filled to your master's

honour."

SECTION III.

THE RELATION OF GENUS AND SPECIES.

THIS relation is founded upon the act of classification. Let us take a tree. There are many kinds of trees, as the oak, the elm, and there is a great number of oaks and elms. Here, then, a tree is the GENUS, oak, elm, are the species, and a particular oak or elm that we may happen to see, is an individual.

In all the branches of natural history, classification is very generally introduced. It is a rule, that the GENUS can always be asserted of each species. Thus we can say, an oak is a tree,—an elm is a tree,—a vine is a tree. This shows that tree is a genus, and that oak, elm, and vine, are species under that particular genus. We may say-a horse is an animal, an ox is an animal, a dog is an animal. This proves that animal is a genus, and that dog, horse, and ox, are species under that genus. Each species may again be divided into inferior species, as there are various kinds of dogs, horses, and oxen.

Genus and species have a reference to moral ideas, as well as to physical ones. Thus we may say, industry is a virtue, frugality is a virtue, temperance is a virtue. This shows that virtue is a genus, and that frugality, industry, and temperance are its species.

You will observe that, although I call this, for brevity

sake, the relation of genus and species, you must always remember that, while a genus may be divided into species, each species may again be subdivided into individuals. I use these words, genus and species, being words in common use, to express the general idea of classification. The word genus denotes a large class-the word species a small class included in the large class. This small class may sometimes be again subdivided into smaller classes, and an individual is a single thing forming a part of the smallest class. It is clear that any single thing included in a smaller class must be included in a larger class. This is the foundation of all our reasonings from the relation of genus and species.

1. The following are examples of classification:

"All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds."-1 Cor. xv. 39.

"Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them. Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged."—Col. iii. 18—21.

"Mountain water, as it is pure and cold to the taste, is also beneficial to the health for drinking. If it cannot be obtained, river water may be resorted to. Well water I put in the last place, although everywhere it is agreeable for its coldness. It is almost always hard, unsuitable for dissolving soap and for cooking vegetables. The water of lakes, even although they may contain the purest waters, and appear pellucid, nevertheless become tepid from their isolation, and are flat and vapid."—Report of the General Board of Health.

"The capital of a manufacturer is of two kinds, fixed and circulating. The fixed capital remains always in his possession, as the mills, warehouses, &c. The circulating capital is always going out of his possession, as the materials of the manufacture, the wages of the workmen, &c. So the horses that draw the plough are part of the farmer's fixed capital, the sheep and oxen he sends to market for sale are part of his circulating capital."

Anon.

"We are authorized to announce that J. W. Gilbart, Esq., F.R.S., will present the sum of One Hundred Pounds to the author of the best Essay which shail be written in reply to the following question :-'In what way can any of the articles col

lected at the Industrial Exhibition of 1851 be rendered especially serviceable to the interests of 'Practical Banking?' These articles may be architectural models that may suggest improvements in the bank-house or office-inventions by which light, heat, and ventilation may be secured, so as to promote the health and comfort of the bank-clerks-discoveries in the fine arts by which the interior of a bank may be decorated, or the bank furniture rendered more commodious-improvements in writing-paper, pens, ink, account-books, scales, letter-copying machines, or other instruments used in carrying on the business-improvements in printing and engraving, by which banks may get their notes, receipts, letters of credit, and other documents of a better kind at a less expense, or so as to prevent forgery-new inventions in the construction of locks, cash-boxes, and safes, which shall render property more secure against fire or thieves-and generally all articles of every kind which can be so applied as to improve, cheapen, or facilitate any of the practical operations of banking." -Banker's Magazine for January, 1851.

2. The rules for dividing a genus into its species, are similar to those for dividing a whole into its parts. A species is part of a genus.

"Each part singly taken must contain less than the whole, but all the parts taken collectively, or together, must contain neither more nor less than the whole; or, as logicians sometimes express it, the parts of the division ought to exhaust the whole thing which is divided."

"In all distributions we should first consider the larger and more immediate kinds or species, or ranks of being, and not divide a thing at once into the more minute and remote."

"The several parts of a distribution ought to be opposite; that is, one species or class of beings in the same rank of division ought not to contain or include another; so men ought not to be divided into the rich, the poor, the learned, and the tall; for poor men may be both learned and tall, and so may the rich.'

"Let not subdivisions be too numerous, without necessity; therefore I think quantity is better distinguished at once into a line, a surface, and a solid; than to say, as Ramus does, that quantity is either a line or a thing lined; and a thing lined is either a surface or a solid.

66

Distribute every subject according to the special design you have in view, so far as is necessary or useful to your present inquiry. Thus a politician distributes mankind according to their civil characters into the rulers and the ruled; and a physician divides them into the sick or the healthy; but a divine distributes them into Turks, heathens, Jews, or Christians.”

:

"It is to this doctrine of distribution of a genus into its several species, we must also refer the distribution of a cause according to its several effects, as some medicines are heating, some are cooling or an effect, when it is distinguished by its causes; as faith is either built upon divine testimony or human. It is to this head we refer particular artificial bodies, when they are distinguished according to the matter they are made of, as a statue is either of brass, of marble, or wood, &c.; and any other beings, when they are distinguished according to their end and design, as the furniture of body or mind is either for ornament or use. this head also we refer subjects, when they are divided according to their modes or accidents; as men are either merry, or grave, or sad; and modes, when they are divided by their subjects, as distempers belong to the fluid, or to the solid parts of the animal."-Watts' Logic.

To

3. The mode of reasoning from genus and species is merely to show that a certain species is properly classed under a certain genus, and then to affirm or deny of the species what you may affirm or deny of the genus.

*

Thus you may say, All fruit is useful to health: the apple is a kind of fruit, therefore the apple is useful to health. I may observe that this principle of reasoning from genus to species is the only kind of reasoning in which you gain anything by placing it in the form of a syllogism. And here, mind, the argument gains nothing in point of strength, but sometimes it gains a little in point of clearness; or, at least, it gives a clearer statement of the meaning of the reasoner.

The following are the examples given in the Logic of Dr. Watts:

"Every wicked man is truly miserable;
All tyrants are wicked men;

Therefore all tyrants are truly miserable.
He that's always in fear is not happy;
Covetous men are always in fear;
Therefore covetous men are not happy.

Whatsoever furthers our salvation is good for us;
Some afflictions further our salvation;

Therefore some afflictions are good for us.

This is the principle of the first figure of syllogistic reasoning; or, as Mr. Bailey calls it, "class reasoning." The maxim is, "Whatever is predicated universally of any class of things, may be predicated in like manner of anything comprehended in that class."-See Bailey, p. 64.