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by the durations of the eclipses, or intervals of darkness between the revolving lights, is excellent; but we are of opinion that coloured lights may form an admirable auxiliary, when the colours are obtained, in the manner we have tried them, from solid, fluid, and gaseous media; and as we know, from direct experiment, that a numerical character may be impressed optically upon the lights of our lighthouses, we have no doubt that a complete and scientific system of distinction will be obtained under a reformed management.

All attempts, however, at a partial change in the present barbarous system of illumination will prove entirely abortive. Hammered reflectors exclude all improvements: the old bottles cannot be accommodated to any new wine; and until these silvered idols of our British polytheists shall be torn down from their high places, and one brilliant vestal fire lighted on their altar, the winds will make havoc among our galleys, and the waves will devour their victims.

Such is a general view of the British lighthouse system, and of the valuable improvements which are ready to be introduced when our Boards shall undergo that renovation which is so loudly called for. The Legislature has lately pledged itself to a revision of the lighthouse code; and that it will act wisely and justly, we cannot doubt. In the preceding pages we have treated this great question as one of public economy, and of national honour; but we trust that a British House of Commons will never forget that the subject with which they have to deal is that of human life,-of the lives, too, of the industrious mariner whom they have severely taxed, and of the helpless seafaring stranger whom they have taxed without mercy. If they fail in this sacred duty, they will be answerable to a tribunal more solemn than that of their constituency-a tribunal where Benevolence will be their judge, science their accuser, and widows and orphans their jury.

VOL. LVII. NO. CXV.

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ART. IX.-1. Artis Logicæ Rudimenta, with Illustrative Observations on each Section. Fourth edition, with Additions. 12mo. Oxford: 1828.

2. Elements of Logic. By RICHARD WHATELY, D.D., Principal of St Alban's Hall, and late Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. Third edition. 8vo. London: 1829.

3. Introduction to Logic, from Dr Whately's Elements of Logic. By the Rev. SAMUEL HINDS, M.A., of Queen's College, and Vice-Principal of St Alban's Hall, Oxford, 12mo. Oxford: 1827.

4. Outline of a New System of Logic, with a Critical Examination of Dr Whately's Elements of Logic,' by GEORGE BENTHAM, Esq. 8vo. London: 1827.

5. An Examination of some Passages in Dr Whately's Elements of Logic. By GEORGE CORNEWALL LEWIS, Esq., Student of Christ Church. 8vo. Oxford: 1829.

6. A Treatise on Logic on the Basis of Aldrich, with Illustrative Notes by the Rev. JOHN HUYSHE, M.A., Brazen-nose College, Oxford. 12mo. Second edition. Oxford: 1833.

7. Questions on Aldrich's Logic, with References to the most Popular Treatises. 12mo. Oxford: 1829.

8. Key to Questions on Aldrich's Logic. 12mo. Oxford: 1829. 9. Introduction to Logic. 12mo. Oxford: 1830.

10. Aristotle's Philosophy. (An Article in Vol. iii. of the Seventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, now publishing.) By the Rev. RENN DICKSON HAMPDEN, M. A., late Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford.) 4to. Edinburgh: 1832.

NOTH OTHING, we think, affords a more decisive proof of the partial spirit in which philosophy has been cultivated in Britain, for the last century and a half, than the combined perversion and neglect which Logic-the science of the formal laws of thought-has experienced during that period. Since the time, and principally, we suspect, through the influence of Locke, (who, as Leibnitz observed, sprevit logicam non intellexit,) no country has been so poor in this department of philosophy, whether we estimate our dialectical literature by its mass or by its quality. Loath to surrender the subject altogether, yet unable, from their own misconception of its nature, to vindicate to logic, on the proper ground, its paramount importance to a science a priori, distinct, and independent; the few logical authors who appeared endeavoured, on the one hand, by throwing out all that belonged to it of a repulsive character, to obviate a taste, and, on the other, by interpolating what pertained to

other branches of knowledge-here a chapter of psychology, there a chapter of metaphysic, &c.-to conciliate to the declining study a broader interest than its own. The attempt was too irrational to succeed; and served only to justify the disregard it was meant to remedy. This was to convert the interest of knowledge with the interest of taste :-this was not to amplify logic, but to deform philosophy, by breaking down their boundaries, and running the different sciences into each other.

In the Universities, where Dialectic once reigned 'The Queen of Arts,' the failure of the study is more conspicuously remarkable.

In those of Scotland, the Chairs of Logic have for generations taught any thing rather than the science which they nominally profess;-a science by the way in which the Scots have not latterly maintained the reputation once established by them in all,* and still retained in other departments of philosophy. To the philosophers of our country, we must confess, that, in part at least, is to be attributed the prevalence of the erroneous notions on this subject promulgated by Locke. No system of logic deserving of notice ever appeared in Scotland; and for Scottish logical writers of any merit, we must travel back for more than two centuries to three contemporary authors, whose abilities, like those, indeed, of almost all the more illustrious scholars of their nation, were developed under foreign influence-to Robert Balfour, Mark Duncan, and William Chalmers, Professors in the Universities of Bourdeaux, Saumur, and Angers. In Cambridge the fortune of the study is indicated by the fact, that the Elements of Logic of William Duncan of Aberdeen, have long dispensed a muddy scantling of metaphysic, psychology, and dialectic, in the University where Downam taught; and Murray's Logic, the Trinity College Compend, may show that matters are, if possible, at a lower pass in Dublin.

In Oxford, the fate of the science has been somewhat different, but, till lately, scarcely more favourable. And here it is necessary to be more particular, as this is the only British seminary where the study of logic proper can be said to have survived; and as, with one exception, the whole works under re

* Les Ecossois sont bons Philosophes,' pronounced the Dictator of Letters (Scaligerana Secunda): and Servitus had previously testified to their character for logical subtility; Dialecticis argutiis sibi blandiuntur.' (Præf. in Ptolem. Geogr. 1533.) For a considerable period, indeed, there was hardly to be found a continental University of any note, without the appendage of a Scottish Professor of Philosophy.

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view* emanate from that University, -represent its character, and are determined and modified by its circumstances. During the scholastic ages, Oxford was held inferior to no University throughout Europe; and it was celebrated, more especially, for its philosophers and dialecticians. But it was neither the recollection of old academical renown, nor any enlightened persuasion of its importance, that preserved to logic a place among the subjects of academical tuition, when the kindred branches of philosophy, with other statutory studies, were dropt from the course of instruction actually given. These were abandoned from no conviction of their inutility, nor even in favour of others of superior value they were abandoned when the system under which they could be taught, was, for a private interest, illegally superseded by another under which they could not. When the College Fellows supplanted the University Professors, the course of statutory instruction necessarily fell with the statutory instruments by which it had been carried through. The same extensive, the same intensive, education which had once been possible when the work was distributed among a body of Professors, each chosen for his ability, and each concentrating his attention on a single study, could no longer be attempted when the collegial corporations, a fortuitous assemblage of individuals, in so far as literary qualification is concerned, had usurped the exclusive privilege of instruction; and when each of these individuals was authorized to become sole teacher of the whole academical encyclopædia. But while the one unqualified Fellow-tutor could not perform the work of a large body of qualified Professors; it is evident that, as he could not rise and expand himself to the former system, that the present, existing only for his behoof, must be contracted and brought down to him. This was accordingly done. The mode of teaching, and the subjects taught, were reduced to the required level and extent. The capacity of lecturing, that is, of delivering an original course of instruction, was not now to be expected in the tutor. The pupil, therefore, read to his tutor a lesson out of book; on this lesson the tutor might, at his discretion, interpose an observation, or preserve silence; and he was thus effectually guaranteed from all demands beyond his ability or inclination to meet. This reversed process was still denominated a lecture. In like manner, all subjects which required in the tutor more than the Fellows' average of learning or acuteness, were eschewed. Many of the most important branches of education in the legal system were thus discarded; and those

* These works, indeed, with one or two insignificant exclusions, comprise the whole recent logical literature of the kingdom.

which it was found necessary or convenient to retain in the intrusive, were studied in easier and more superficial treatises. This, in particular, was the case with logic.

By statute, the Professor of Dialectic was bound to read and expound the Organon of Aristotle twice a-week; and, by statute, regular attendance on his lectures was required from all under-graduates for their three last years. Until the statutory system was superseded, an energetic and improving exercise of mind from the intelligent study of the most remarkable monument of philosophical genius, imposed on all, was more especially secured in those who would engage in the subsidiary business of tuition. This, and the other conditions of that system, thus determined a far higher standard of qualification in the tutor when the tutor was still only a subordinate instructor, than remained when he had become the exclusive organ of academical education. When, at last, the voice of the Professors was silenced in the University, and in the Colleges the Fellows had been able to exclude all other graduates from the now principal office of tutor, the study of logic declined with the ability of those by whom the science was taught. The original treatises of Aristotle were now found to transcend the College complement of erudition and intellect. They were accordingly abandoned; and with these the various logical works previously in academical use, which supposed any reach of thought, or an original acquaintance with the Orga non. The Compend of Sanderson stood its ground for a season, when the more elaborate treatises of Brerewood, Crackanthorpe, and Smiglecius, were forgotten. But this little treatise, the excellent work of an accomplished logician, was too closely relative to the books of the Organon, and demanded too frequently an inconvenient explanation, to retain its place, so soon as another text-book could be introduced, more accommodated to the fallen and falling standard of tutorial competency. Such a text-book was soon found in the Compendium of Aldrich. The dignity of its author, as Dean of Christ Church, and his tation as an ingenious, and even learned, writer in other branches of knowledge, ensured it a favourable recommendation: it was even shorter than Sanderson; written in a less scholastic Latin; adopted an order wholly independent of the Organon; and made no awkward demands upon the tutor, as comprising only what was either plain in itself, or could without difficulty be expounded. The book-which, in justice to the Dean, we ought to mention was not originally written for the publicis undoubtedly a work of no inconsiderable talent; but the talent is, perhaps, principally shown in the author having performed so cleverly a task for which he was so indifferently

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