actions with others; for it is a rare excellence, and enables a man both to attain a true result more certainly, and to attain it more speedily than those with whom he has to do. While they are carried hither and thither, by their prejudices, their wishes, their hopes, or their fears, he has gained a just view of the business in question; and is, at his leisure, calculating all the consequences of the line of conduct he means to pursue. It may however be observed, that this calmness and coolness of mind, when belonging to vulgarity and sordidness of character, commonly generates a self-conceit, or vanity, which becomes an indirect motive, and leads the understanding astray. Men of this sort, in order to gain the immediate gratification of having reached an unfair advantage over the simple, confine their views to the present moment; and while they snatch at a trifling profit, are blind to their own greater and future interests. Cunning, or worldly wisdom, is the usual designation of this sort of intellectual short-sightedness, which is produced in vain and vulgar minds that possess the advantage of a cool judgment.

The epithets acute, profound, and comprehensive, applied to the judgment, express different degrees, or kinds, of activity, and of force, in the intellect, Next to the many perverting motives which are the great sources of errors of judgment, a principal

cause of false or imperfect conclusions is that indolence, or inertness, from which very few minds are altogether exempt. In many minds intellectual action ceases, or falters, before the process of comparing objects or notions is completed. These unfinished comparisons, if deemed to be perfect, are necessarily false judgments. The activity, or the energy, which resists this inertness, displays itself in different modes, as for example:-A mind that is capable of a short vigorous effort, will complete a single process of thought, and produce a perfect comparison of two or three objects. This is what constitutes an acute judgment. A profound judgment is one that is capable of long-continued, and patient exertion, and in which the desire of truth is tranquil and steady, so that every comparison is carefully made, and the entire series of comparisons is pursued, until the matter in question is examined in all its breadth and depth.

When a vivid and steady desire of truth is conjoined with modesty and with great tranquillity, and ingenuousness of temper, there will be a frequent return of the mind to the same subject, as if to examine anew its former conclusions. This will leave room for the admission of new considerations, which heretofore may have been neglected; and thus frequent amendments, or revisions of such conclusions will take place; and a habit will be

formed of suspending the mental process in expectation of new light, or more evidence. These habits form what is termed a comprehensive judgment; or an enlarged mode of thinking. Acute minds are often hurried into error from the want of this sort of revision of their opinions; and profound minds are liable to err by the too continuous and unbroken fixing of the mind upon a single train of ideas; so that facts or principles which, though nearly connected with the subject before them, lie on one side, are overlooked.-It is thus often, that the learned lose themselves in depths, where common minds easily find their way. Acuteness, profoundness, and even comprehensiveness of judgment, are not seldom found apart from evenness or serenity of temper; in such cases the intellectual excellence shews itself only in favourable seasons, or when no vivid motive agitates the spirit. Some persons exhibit consummate ability, and great soundness of judgment in managing other men's affairs, or in giving advice where they are not personally interested; though they invariably mismanage their own concerns :-in their own concerns, their intellectual faculties are perturbed by their hopes, fears, passions, or anxieties. It is thus, often, that studious men, who display the highest degree of acuteness or force of mind, while occupied in their closets, with literary or

scientific matters, act like children, if exposed to the agitations of public life.

LIBERTY,

As an abstract term, is opposed to necessity, and means the absence of restraint, or hindrance, or interruption in the performance of an action, or the fulfilment of any desire. (See NECESSITY.)

LOGIC,

Considered as a science, explains the operation of the mind in reasoning, or in discovering truth. As an art it teaches the method of managing the faculties of abstraction, generalization, and judgment, to the greatest advantage; and gives rules also for detecting fallacious or sophistical arguments. Logic has, in modern times, been much neglected and despised, in consequence of the futile matter, or the unmeaning jargon, with which, formerly, it abounded. It is well that the ancient system of wrangling about trifles should be discarded; but it is nevertheless true that the mind may be greatly strengthened and aided by that sort of training and exercise which is scarcely at

all attempted in modern education. A man may be both strong and brave who is taken, untrained, from the plough; but neither his strength nor courage will be of much service in a field of battle, until he has learned to employ both with the precision, promptitude, and subordination, which are taught by the military exercise. And thus too, good sense, and strength of mind, are often baffled or overthrown by the subtilty of a crafty reasoner, merely because the mind wants the training which a sound and rational system of logic might afford.

MAJOR, MINOR, and MIDDLE TERMS see

SYLLOGISM.

MATTER,

That which occupies space, which, when so occupied, is called extension. Matter becomes known to the mind by its obstructing the movements of the body, and by its affecting, at the same time, the organ of sight. Having gained the knowledge of that which is solid and visible, we think of it as a substance, which supports, or contains all the various qualities of colour, figure, density, fragrance, taste, &c. that affect the senses.