358 On the Art of Reasoning. other respect like it, and furnished with wings equally beautiful. I have rarely found this insect in a creeping state, but just at sun-set flying in great numbers. Some years since I was much entertained on a summer's evening in watching their return to a melon-pit; when, as soon as they got under the glass frame, they entered the earth. I have seen them now, for several nights past, just before the sun dips below the horizon, hastening home, but have not been able to trace their nocturnal habitation; but this circumstance seems to prove that this species feed in the daytime.—If the foregoing account should be thought deserving a place in your Recreations, and be of the least entertainment to your readers, it will be a high gratification to ENTOMOPHILUS. MISCELLANEOUS LITERATURE. On the Art of Reasoning. God made man upright; but he hath found out many inventions. I Do not know any art that is so difficult to learn as the art of reasoning; and I think, that the man who should acquire the skill of teaching that art to the bulk of mankind would deserve immortal honour, like Ceres or Bacchus, or the inventors of other useful arts. But this, I am afraid, we can scarcely expect to see in our day; for it presupposes another kind of perable aversion, viz. the art of thinking; to avoid which, many people would consent to be shot, or drowned, or carried to the gallows itself-or, in short, would put their lives, fortunes, or even their consciences, in the power of another. But the more hopeless the task, the more glorious would be the achievement, could it be effected. I therefore beg leave to propose this as a very proper subject for the consideration of some of my enterprising readers. It is a task that they may easily believe I shall not attempt myself; for, as it is a most necessary work to pluck the beam out of one's own eye before one can see clearly to remove the mote from our neighbour's, I am afraid, were I now to attempt this, these eyes of mine would be closed in everlasting night before half the task could be accomplished. But, though I cannot attempt to remove the evil, I shall at least have a better chance of persuading another to undertake the task, by proving to him that the evil does actually exist, than by merely saying that it does so. With that view, I shall adduce a few examples of this sort, which will put him into a train of discovering many others when he chooses to apply his mind to that subject. Those who have dipped a little into the history of the human mind, and have read the works of Duns Scotus, Paracelsus, Sandigovius, and others, will readily admit, that the art of reasoning was not well understood by these philosophers, whose system was only to confound the understanding by the subtleties of ratiocination. And though Bacon-both Bacons-(what a fortunate name!) made bold attempts to accomplish the task which I now recommend, yet they both failed; though one of them was so fortunate as to destroy at once the infallibility of Aristotle, and, as a remote consequence of it, the infallibility of the pope of Rome. Yet human weakness is such, that, like the children of Israel of old, no sooner was Moses, who had destroyed the idols of antiquity, removed out of sight, than they made new idols for themselves, stocks and stones, the workmanship of their own hands, whom they have worshipped with the most abject adoration. Among the foremost in this idolatrous career have been the chemical philosophers. The first idol they set up for themselves, in modern times, was an indefinite monster, a perfect Proteus, who, under the name of salt, sulphur, and mercury, could be made to assume all shapes, and do every thing that the imagination could conceive, not excepting even impofsibilities themselves; and all this with the utmost facility imaginable. It was, indeed, but repeating these talismanic names a certain number of times, and jumbling them together in a certain mysterious way, and the thing was done; and this kind of hocus pocus art they called the art of reasoning. But as, in this world, no wonder can last for ever, this deity in time gradually lost his influence among the people; and those talismanic orations, which were deemed at one time the perfection of reasoning, got so far out of fashion, that they lost their name; and, instead of reasoning, they were called unintelligible jargon-so salts, sulphur, and mercury, were kicked quite out of doors, and a new idol was erected in their As the former idol was undefined, a certain junto formed a plan to place in its stead one that should not have the same fault; and as nothing can be more definite than a needle, which, as every body knows, has a sharp point and a solid body, these philosophers, without troubling themselves about the eye, having invested it, by the breath of their lips, with divine omnipotence, fell down before this creature of their own formation, and worshipped it. But as, upon trial, they found that it would best answer their purpose to give their needle a case, by means of which its sharp point might be occasionally obtunded, they granted this unto their needle; and although it must appear not a little extraordinary to us to think how it would be possible, by means of this needle and sheath, to explain every thing in nature, yet, such is the power of philosophic legerdemain, that they found no sort of difficulty in it; for, by a dexterous shuffling of these needles and sheaths, and sharpening and obtunding them as occasion might require, they soon came to satisfy themselves, and the whole world for a time, that they could thus unravel all the mysteries of nature with the most perfect facility;-and this they also called the art of reasoning. But this new idol did not continue to bear sway for such a length of time, or with such despotic power, as its predecessor had done; there are even some who still say that he never obtained universal adoration; for that there always was a strong sect, who wished to establish, under a few modifications of power, the former divinity; and these at last, under the name of phlogistonians, acquired such power as to kick the needles and sheaths out of doors, and consecrate phlo giston in their stead; but the influence of this deity was much curtailed, in comparison with the former, by the restraining influence of some of the disciples of Bacon, who, by means of a strong unyielding chain called experiment, gagged the mouths of his most zealous votaries, which greatly checked them in the rapidity of their progrefs in this new modification of the art of reasoning. At length a mighty sect arose, which looked upon phlogistonism as a perfect abomination; they therefore banished it from among men, and loaded it with the most opprobrious epithets; and, waxing great in power, they created a new divinity, of gigantic stature and unmeasureable dimensions, compared with which, that idol reared of old by Darius in the plains of Dura was but a dwarf; and they commanded that all nations, and kindreds, and languages of the earth, should fall down before it, and worship it, under the dreaded penalty of literary opprobrium. This new phantom of human creation they invested with the name of nomenclature, the principal functionaries under whose influence were called oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen. Salt, sulphur, and mercury, were not employed with greater dexterity by the old chemists for explaining all the phenomena of nature, than oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen, are by the new; which, operating for the present time as a talismanic key, lay's open all the secrets of nature with the most enchanting facility; for nothing can stand before them; omniscience is of course conferred upon those who are in possession of it, and know how to use it. And |