AN EPITOME

OF THE

ARTS AND SCIENCES.

CLASS II....LESSON I.

OF LOGIC.

2. What is logic?

A. The art of using reason well in our enqui ries after truth, and the communication of it to others.

2. In what does this art consist?

A. It consists in the knowlege of facts, and the application of the reflections made by men through the four principal faculties of their mind, perception, reasoning, disposition, judgment.

2. By whom is logic as an art, most employed, and to whom most useful?

A. Whoever reasons well is a good logician; but it is most employed, and with method, by those persons who have to teach or reason with others; legislators, lawyers, preachers. It is useful to all men; and all men who think and judge for themselves, employ logical rules without being conscious of it: for the art is only the natural system of reasoning methodized and committed to writing.

2. What is understood by perception?

A. It is the falculty of comprehending in the mind, and discerning the nature of what we see or contemplate, and it may be sensible or abstract, we see a house, a tree, a stream, and

know what they are; so we are conscious of the existence of our country, of our parents, or of our happy form of government, of time, motion, of trade, life, virtue, and various other subjects.... the result of the perception is an idea.

Reasoning, or argumentation, is that operation of the mind, by which we draw our conclusions on any any subject which is in itself not clear, from a comparison with other similar subjects that are known, and evident. These inferences or conclusions are the effect of reasoning, and the propositions upon which they are founded we call a syllogism or argument; as virtuous men are governed by their ideas of good and evil ....Thomas is a virtuous man, therefore he will not do what is evil. Or thus,

No virtuous man is a slanderer,

But Janus and Silenus are both slanderers.
Therefore neither of them are virtuous.
There are various kinds of syllogism.

Disposition or arrangement, is that order into which we put our perceptions and reasonings on a subject, so as to obtain the clearest knowlege of it, to retain it longest in our minds, and communicate it to others most effectually.

Judgment is that act of the mind by which two or more conceptions or ideas are combined, either in asserting or denying something, the result of which is called a proposition....as the rocks and trees do not think; good men are often the victims of bad men; virtuous men are governed by their ideas of good and evil.

This sketch of the system of logic is an example of disposition, as it arranges the principles by which we perceive, reason, and judge, upon all subjects.

CLASS II....LESSON II.

OF POETRY,

2. What is poetry?

A. It is the art of writing or speaking according to a certain harmonious arrangement of words, by measures or proportions of time, accent, and sound.

2. Has not poetry other names?

A. It is also called verse, from being constructed in verses, thence the art is called versification; and it is also called metre, because it consists of certain number or measure of syllables or sounds.

2. What is a poem?

A. A complete and finished piece of poetry, such as the Illiad of Homer, the Eneid of Virgil, and the Columbiad of Barlow: there are lesser poems, and of various species....in rhyme and blank verse.

2. What is the difference between those two kinds of poetry?

er.

A. Rhyme is that kind of verse in which the terminating sounds are alike, or respond to each othBlank verse is measured by equal quantities of sound, but does not rhyme. The following are specimens of blank verse and of rhyme.

Begin with gentle toils; and as your nerves
Grow firmer, to hardier by just steps aspire..
The body, moulded by the clime, endures;
The equator heats or Hyperborean frosts
Except by habits foreign to its turn,
Unwise, you counteract its forming power:

ARMSTRONG,

As new awaked from soundest sleep,
Soft on the flow'ry herb I found me laid
In balmy sweat, which with his beams the sun
Soon dry'd, and on the reeking moisture fed.

Seek you to train your fav'rite boy?
Each caution, every care, employ :
And ere you venture to confide,
Let his preceptor's heart be try'd ;
Weigh well his manners, life and scope,
On these depend thy future hope.

MILTON.

O! could I worship ought beneath the skies
That earth hath seen, or fancy could devise,
Thine altar sacred liberty, should stand,
Built by no vulgar mercenary hand,

GAY.

With fragrant turf, and flowers wild and fair
As ever dress'd a bank, or scented summer air..

COWPER.

Hail man! exalted title! first and best,
Of God's own image by his hand imprest,
O! man, my brother, how the cordial flame
Of all endearments kindle at the name!
In every clime, thy visage greets my eyes,
In every tongueth y kindred accents rise;
The thought expanding swells my breast with glee,
It finds a friend, and loves itself in thee.

BARLOW.

2. Are there no other measures besides these? There are those of ten, eight, and seven

syllables, and various others.

2. Give me an example of each.

A. That of ten, is the measure of the two preceding extracts from Cowper and Barlow; as are those from Armstrong and Milton in blank verse; and the following,

Immodest words admit of no defence,
For want of decency is want of sense.

ROSCOMMON.

Verses of eight, which is an usual measure for short poems.

And may at last my weary age
Find out the peaceful hermitage,
The hairy gown and mossy cell,.
Where I may sit, and nightly spell
O'er ev'ry star the night does shew,
And ev'ry herb that sips the dew.

The extract above from Gay, is in the same

measure.

Verses of seven, called Anacreontic, fromAnacreon, a Greek poet, who wrote in verse of this measure.

Fairest piece of well form'd earth,
Urge not thus your haughty birth.

2. In what principle does the perfection of poetry consist?

A. In the English language it principally de pends on the modulation of the accents and the disposition of the pauses, and this modulation is various in different kinds of measure....the following is an example of which the sense shews the character:

Softly sweet in Lydian measures,
Soon he soothed his soul to pleasures;
War, he sung, is toil and trouble,
Never ending still beginning,
Fighting still and still destroying;
If the world be worth thy winning,
Think, O think it worth enjoying."