Manuductio ad ministerium. Directions for a candidate of the ministry

Nor can I encourage you to spend very much Time, in that which goes under the Name of LOGIC. If my excellent Friend Langius, in his Noble Medicina Mentis, [which I commend unto you, to be diligently perused, as an Introduction to all your Studies of the Sciences,] had not compelled me to a Contempt of the Vulgar Logic, learnt in our Colleges, as a sort of mere Morology, yet a little serious Recollection would have brought me to it. What is there usually got by the Vulgar Logic, but only to be furnished with a Parcel of Terms, which instead of leading the Mind into the Truth, enables one rather to carry on Altercations, and Logomachies, by which the Force of Truth may be at Pleasure, and by some little Trick, evaded. The Power and Process of Reason is Natural to the Soul of Man; And those Masters of Reason, who argue the most Rationally, and make the most Rational Researches into the true State of Things, and who take the most Reasonable Measures for their Conduct, and who in all things arrive to the most notable Discoveries, I pray, what sort of Logicians are they? Either they never once read a Page of any Burgesdicius, or else they have unlearnt and forgot all their Vulgar Logic. I am sure, they rarely trouble their Heads to recall the Old Rules which they have recited unto their Tutors. To exhibit in the pompous Form of an Art, what every One does by mere Nature and Custom, and fabricate it into such a ⟨p. 36⟩shape as that of the Vulgar Logic, and with such trifling Applications and Illustrations, as 'tis usually done, appears as impertinent, as if one should with much Formality teach the Art of Eating or Drinking or Walking. And it might with equal Solemnity be shown, what Points of Regular Management are exemplified by the Boys playing at their Marbles. The most Valuable Thing in Logic, and the very Termination of it, is, The Doctrine of Syllogisms. And yet it is notorious, that as all Syllogizing is only to confirm you in a Truth which you are already the Owner of, so, no Logic has yet given us all the several Ways of Syllogizing that may be run into; And it is as notorious, that while an expanded Syllogizing is reckoned no other than an Indecency in ordinary Writing as well as Talking, our only Syllogizing is that which we call, An Enthymeme: Such a thing is evident, and therefore such a Thing to be inferred from it, is also evident.

Nor can I encourage you to spend very much Time, in that which goes under the Name of LOGIC. If my excellent Friend Langius, in his Noble Medicina Mentis, [which I commend unto you, to be diligently perused, as an Introduction to all your Studies of the Sciences,] had not compelled me to a Contempt of the Vulgar Logic, learnt in our Colleges, as a sort of meer Morology, yet a little serious Recollection would have brought me to it. What is there usually got by the Vulgar Logic, but only to be furnished with a Parcel of Terms, which instead of leading the Mind into the Truth, enables one rather to carry on Altercations, and Logomachies, by which the Force of Truth may be at Pleasure, and by some little Trick, evaded. The Power and Process of Reason is Natural to the Soul of Man; And those Masters of Reason, who argue the most Rationally, and make the most Rational Researches into the true State of Things, and who take the most Reasonable Measures for their Conduct, and who in all things arrive to the most notable Discoveries, I pray, what sort of Logicians are they? Either they never once read a Page of any Burgesdicius, or else they have unlearnt and forgot all their Vulgar Logic. I am sure, they rarely trouble their Heads to recall the Old Rules which they have recited unto their Tutors. To exhibit in the pompous Form of an Art, what every One does by meer Nature and Custom, and fabricate it into such a