ject, to which these attributes can with justice and perspicuity be applied. This immoderate use of metaphor," Dr. Campbell observes," is the principal source of all the nonsense of Orators and Poets.

"The second species of writing wherein we are liable to be imposed on by words without meaning, is that wherein the terms most frequently occurring denote things which are of a complicated nature, and to which the mind is not sufficiently familiarized. Many of those notions which are called by Philosophers mixed modes, come under this denomination. Of these the instances are numerous in every tongue; such as government, church, state, constitution, polity, power, commerce, legislature, jurisdiction, proportion, symmetry, elegance. It will considerably increase the danger of our being deceived by an unmeaning use of such terms, if they are besides (as very often they are) of so indeterminate, and consequently equivocal, signification, that a writer unobserved either by himself or by his reader, may slide from one sense of the term to another, till by degrees he fall into such applications of it as will make no sense at all. It deserves our notice also, that we are in much greater danger of terminating in this, if the different meanings of the same word have some affinity to one another, than if they have none. In the latter case, when there is no affinity, the transition from one meaning to another is taking a very wide step, and what few writers are in any danger of; it is, besides, what will not so readily escape the observation of the reader. So much for the second cause of deception, which is the chief source of all the nonsense of writers on politics and criticism.

"The third and last, and, I may add, the principal species of composition, wherein we are exposed to this illusion by the abuse of words, is that in which the terms employed are very

abstract, and consequently of very extensive signification. It is an observation that plainly ariseth from the nature and structure of language, and may be deduced as a corollary from what hath been said of the use of artificial signs, that the more general any name is, as it comprehends the more individuals under it, and consequently requires the more extensive knowledge in the mind that would rightly apprehend it, the more it must have of indistinctness and obscurity. Thus the word lion is more distinctly apprehended by the mind than the word beast, beast than animal, animal than being. But there is, in what are called abstract subjects, a still greater fund of obscurity than that arising from the frequent mention of the most general terms. Names must be assigned to those qualities as considered abstractedly, which never subsist independently, or by themselves, but which constitute the generic characters and the specific differences of things. And this leads to a manner which is in many instances remote from the common use of speech, and therefore must be of more difficult conception." (Book ii. sect. 2. pp. 102, 103.)

It is truly to be regretted that an author who has written so justly on this subject, should within a few pages so strikingly exemplify the errors he has been treating of by indulging in a declamation against Logic, which could not even to himself have conveyed any distinct meaning. When he says that a man who had learned Logic was 66 qualified, without any other kind of knowledge, to defend any position whatever, however contradictory to common sense; " and that" that art observed the most absolute indifference to truth and error," he cannot mean that a false conclusion could be logically proved from true premises; since, ignorant as he was of the subject, he was aware, and has in another place distinctly acknowl

edged, that this is not the case; nor could he mean merely that a false conclusion could be proved from a false premise, since that would evidently be a nugatory and ridiculous objection. He seems to have had, in truth, no meaning at all; though like the authors he had been so ably criticizing, he was perfectly unaware of the emptiness of what he was saying.

[M]. Part III. Chap. ii. § 8. p. 353.

"Moses stretched forth his hand, and the waters were dr vided, and became a wall unto the children of Israel, on the right hand and on the left. Moses smote the rock with his rod, and the waters flowed withal, and the children of Israel were refreshed in the wilderness, and were saved from death. But what was there in the arm of Moses, that the sea should obey it and stand still? Or what in the rod of Moses, that it should turn the flinty rock into a living fountain? Let me freely, though reverently, speak to you of the patriarch Moses. He was indeed great, because he was indeed good, in his generation. But except in the matter of his goodness - except in his superior faith and trust in his Maker

except in his more ready obedience to the holy desires which the Spirit of the Lord inspired into his soul, he was no more than the rest of the Israelites, and the rest of men. Like them, like us, like every human being that is born of woman, he was compassed with infirmities, and tried with afflictions, and subject to terror, and surrounded with sorrow. Of himself he was able to do nothing, but al the mighty acts which he did, he did because it was God which worked in him both to will and to do of his good

because we are not called

pleasure,' and because Moses did not resist the will of God, or neglect or abuse the power with which he was endued. If to the Jew God was very liberal, we have the promise of his beloved Son, that to Christians, in all spiritual and necessary things, he will be still more so. Over the world without us he will perhaps give us no power upon to save a people. But we are called upon to save ourselves, and he will give us a power over the rebellious world that is within us. Stretch forth but your hands in faith and sincerity to God, and surely he will separate between you and your lusts. He will divide the tumultuous sea of your passions, and open for you a way to escape from your enemies into the land of eternity. He will cause the waves thereof to stand still and harmless on your right hand and on your left, and make you to walk in safety and unhurt through the overflowings of ungodliness, which, without his controlling arm, would have drowned your souls in perdition and destruction. Be ye never so faint and weary in the wilderness of sin, yet if in humility you smite upon your breast, and say, God be merciful to me a sinner! he will melt the stony heart within you, and turning it into a fountain of piety and love — of love to man and love to your Maker refresh you with the living waters of the comfort of the Spirit, and strengthen you by its power for your pilgrimage through life."- BENSON's First Course of Hulsean Lectures for 1820. Lect. XIV. pp.

344-346

[N]. Part IV. Chap. ii. § 2. p. 400.

"For the benefit of those who are desirous of getting over their bad habits, and discharging that important part of the

sacred office, the Reading the Liturgy with due decorum, I shall first enter into a minute examination of some parts of the Service, and afterwards deliver the rest accompanied by such marks as will enable the reader, in a short time, and with moderate pains, to make himself master of the whole.

"But first it will be necessary to explain the marks which you will hereafter see throughout the rest of this course. They are of two kinds; one, to point out the emphatic words, for which I shall use the Grave accent of the Greek ['].

"The other to point out the different pauses or stops, for which I shall use the following marks:

"For the shortest pause, marking an incomplete line, thus '. "For the second, double the time of the former, two ". "And for the third or full stop, three "".

"When I would mark a pause longer than any belonging to the usual stops, it shall be by two horizontal lines, as thus =.

"When I would point out a syllable that is to be dwelt on some time, I shall use this -, or a short horizontal over the Syllable.

"When a syllable should be rapidly uttered, thus, or a curve turned upwards; the usual marks of long and short in Prosody.

"The Exhortation I have often heard delivered in the following manner:

"Dearly beloved brethren, the Scripture moveth us in sundry places to acknowledge and confess our manifold sins and wickedness. And that we should not dissemble nor cloak them before the face of Almighty God our Heavenly Father, but confess them with a humble lowly penitent and obedient heart, to the end that we may obtain, forgiveness of the same, by his infinite goodness and mercy. And although we ought