commendation of containing passages of

which LOCKE would not have been ashamed; and observes, that "he is the only Jesuit whose writings exhibit a rational Philosophy."

"BUFFIER," says Sir JAMES MACKINTOSH, "the only Jesuit whose name has a place in the History of Abstract Philosophy, has no peculiar opinions which would have required any mention of him as a Moralist, were it not for the great reputation of his Treatise on First Truths, with which Dr. REID SO remarkably, though unaware of it, coincides, even in the application of so practical a term as Common Sense, to denote the faculty which recognizes the truth of first principles. His Philosophical Writings are remarkable for that perfect clearness of expression, which, since the

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great examples of DESCARTES and PASCAL, has been so generally diffused as to have become one of the enviable peculiarities of French Philosophical Style, and almost of the French Language."

ELEMENTS OF METAPHYSICS.

DIALOGUE I.

THESE things, said EUGENIUS, contemptuously, are mere metaphysical subtilties--idle speculations, tending to no useful purpose.

LEANDER, who had devoted much of his attention to Metaphysics, seemed displeased at the observation, conceiving it to be an indirect attack upon himself; accordingly, he asked EUGENIUS if he really thought Metaphysics deserved the character of barren speculation, and frivolous subtilties?

I have never given myself the trouble to go very far into the subject, replied EUGENIUS; and, to say the truth, I have

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generally regarded whatever is subtile and abstruse, as of little or no real value. Now nothing can be more subtile and abstruse than Metaphysics.

I know, said LEANDER, that there are many persons who have a distaste to all argument. How much soever the disputes that have arisen in the world may require examination, they have a shorter method of proceeding; they at once espouse the side most agreeable to their own views; or else they censure both parties alike, satisfied with pronouncing the question to be one of metaphysical subtilties, and, consequently, not worth the labour of serious investigation.

You are inclined to raillery, said EUGENIUS; but I will frankly confess that I am somewhat prejudiced against Metaphysics, and the disputes that have resulted from them.

I am not surprised at it, rejoined LEANDER; since by your own confession you have never vouchsafed to ascertain what they really are; allow me, then, to intercede in behalf of Metaphysical