Again, if I say "Mary and Jane sing charmingly;" sing is used in the concrete, because it is used with the singers. Mary and Jane.

36. Abstract or Supersensuous Thinking or Reason ing is that, in which properties and actions are considered distinct from the objects, to which they belong.

Thus, two and three are five is an Abstract or Supersensuous thought. So, thinking of greatness apart from objects is an Abstract or Supersensuous thought.

Many attempts have been made to find the precise difference between mankind and brutes. Probably it may be found in the capacity to think in the abstract. In man, this faculty seems to be unlimited in the extent of its development and in the range of its investigations. To what extent

brutes possess it, we do not know, but it must be in a very limited degree, if at all. In regard to numbers, the human intellect seems to gain new powers only as it leaves the concrete and exercises itself in the abstract; while brutes seem to have but faint ideas of them, even when connected with things or in the concrete. While brutes are mainly confined within the range of their senses, man's limits are the infinitesimal and the infinite.

37. WE must learn to think in the Concrete before we can learn to think in the Abstract.

The beginner soon perceives that two boys and three boys are five boys; two men and three men are five men; two cents and three cents are five cents; and that two books and three books are five books; since the familiar or Concrete terms serve to explain the less familiar or Abstract terms, two and three are five; and hence, after a little practice, the Concrete may be changed to the Abstract with a fair degre of certainty that the Abstract will be understood.

How unnatural to compel beginners, especially young chil dren, to commit "the tables" of arithmetic, or the definitions and rules of grammar before they have gained any concrete or practical ideas of those things, to which these tables and rules belong.

"The CONCRETE must always precede the ABSTRACT." In consequence of violating this rule, pupils have learned to combine numbers, and yet have been ignorant of arithmetic; and have learned grammar without gaining a knowledge of the structure and use of language.

38. Some Statements or Propositions are so simple, that we are not conscious of reasoning in regard to them. We seem both to understand them and to know that they are true, as soon as they are distinctly stated These statements are called Intuitive Knowl edge or Knowledge by Intuition; as

to us.

1. A part is less than the whole.

2. We ought to love what is good and hate what is evil. 3. Whatever is not eternal must have had a beginning. Since we can not have a conscious process of reasoning before we see and fully know the truth of Intuitive Knowledge, it follows that Intuitive Knowledge neither requires nor admits proof by reasoning. "To know it is to prove it."

39. Intuitive Knowledge includes two items. First; A knowledge of our own Identity, or the knowledge, that we are the same individuals, whom we remember as ourselves.

Second; The truth of certain statements, which are called Axioms or First Truths.

40. We divide Axioms or First Truths into three kinds; Mathematical, Moral, and Metaphysical or Ethical.

41. Mathematical Axioms refer to statements of existence, time, space, &c.; as—

1. The whole of a thing is greater than any part of it. 2. Things equal to the same thing are equal to each other.

42. Moral Axioms refer to our duties to our Creator, to our fellow-men, and to ourselves; as

1. If God is supremely good, we ought to love him supremely.

2. There is a moral distinction between truth and false hood.

3. We ought to love what is right and hate what is wrong.

43. Metaphysical or Ethical Axioms refer to the possibility, probability, and necessity; as

1. All things, which do not contradict God's nature, are possible with Him.

2. Every effect must have a cause.

3. An effect can not precede its cause.

"In every process of reasoning, we proceed by founding one step upon another, which has gone before it; and when we trace such a process backward, we must arrive at certain truths, which are recognized as fundamental, requiring no proof and admitting of none."-Abercrombie.

"The faculty of reasoning exists in different individuals in very different degrees. There is the same diversity here, which is found to exist in respect to every other mental susceptibility and mental process. In some persons it is not even powerful enough to meet the ordinary exigencies of life, and hardly rescue its possessor from the imputation of idiocy; in others it elevates human nature, and bestows extraordinary grasp and penetration. And between the extremes of extraordinary expansion and marked imbecility, there are multitudes of distinct grades, almost every possible variety."— Upham.

44. All reasoning is founded on these First Truths. That is, we go back to a first truth as a starting point, from which to reason, because all must admit the truth of these statements; and then by other statements or propositions connect these axioms with a conclusion; as

All created things must have had a beginning.

The world is a created thing.

Because, 1. It shows skill.

2. It shows design.

3. It shows adaptation to an end.

It could not show skill, design, and adaptation without being created subject to these.

But it could not have been created subject to these without a Creator.

Since it had a Creator it must be a created thing.

Therefore, since the earth is a created thing, it must have had a beginning.

Reasoning or Thinking is the most exalted exercise of the human intellect, and to its development, our efforts should mainly be directed. This is done, when we accustom ourselves to seek and to produce the reasons of those things, facts, principles, and rules, which are the subjects of our studies.

Mankind alone of all God's creatures are endowed with Reason. The other animals have only that lesser light called Instinct, which is limited to each individual of the race in its exercise and in the extent of its culture, while Reason is unlimited in the extent of its development, and capable of an ever-increasing expansion of its powers.

In this exercise all the individuals of each generation may participate, and each may take, for its starting point, the highest development reached by the preceding generation.

RULES TO BE OBSERVED IN REASONING.

FIRST RULE. Be careful to make the object or aim of all your reasoning the discovery of the truth, instead of a silly desire to gain a victory, as a debater.

The discovery of truth is the great object of Reasoning or Debating, and these again are the best means for finding the truth. When used for its discovery, there is no more noble and improving mental exercise. But too often debates de

generate into mean efforts to appear to be smart-to gain a victory. Acting under this wrong motive, the reasoner is easily led to misstate facts and to misquote or pervert authorities, until, by attempting to deceive others, his own mind becomes confused and finally perverted. He becomes incapable of distinguishing truth from error, and is finally "left to his own delusions to believe a lie."

The writer knew one such. A young man possessing fine natural powers of mind. He was seized with a silly desire to appear smart and for a time he succeeded. His views, new and surprising to us, were so perfectly sustained by citation of authorities, and even by quotations, that we were all confounded at our own ignorance. At length it was discovered, that his quotations could not be found in the authors named, and more than that, oftentimes passages were found in those same authorities directly opposed to the pretended quotations. From this point the tale is short. Those, who knew him, distrusted his statements. He, in turn, seemed to distrust others and to lose his own self-respect. He was left to his own delusions and became a miserable vagabond. The history of the learned Chillingworth furnishes another remarkable instance of a similar perversion.

SECOND RULE. State carefully the subject to be discussed, and see in what points of it you and the others agree, and in what you disagree. Only the latter points require discussion.

Some persons never discuss the point at issue, but begin with a complaint that the subject is "too broad," or "too narrow," or "is not the subject," &c.

If it be a subject, which you can not discuss, keep silence and listen to the others, that you may learn from them.

THIRD RULE. Consider carefully the evidence, which you are about to offer. Try to look at it as those opposing will look at it, and see if you can meet the arguments thus suggested.