REMARK S. It is more than a century since Locke conceived and maintained, after Hobbes and perhaps others, that demonstrative reasoning was applicable to other subjects besides the mathematics, and particularly to morality. Doctors Law and Hartley, the disciples and successors of Locke, entered fully into his views; and Dr. Hartley especially was fond of exhibiting his reasoning in a mathematical form, and in some instances has very happily applied algebraic formula to illustrate, I do not say to confirm, his trains of moral speculation. Mr. Whewell's Thoughts on Mathematics, in which he affirms that mathematics afford the best example of practical logic, and the elaborate article in the Edinburgh Review, B No. 126, on Mathematical Studies, which treats generally of the influence of mathematics upon the intellectual character and powers, have in some degree recalled attention to the subject, and induced me to offer some thoughts upon it, which I trust will not appear altogether unworthy of perusal. I do this with earnestness, and even anxiety; not because I conceive that anything original or remarkable will be found in the following observations; for I bear in mind an aphorism of Dr. Johnson, "He who tries to say that which has never been said before him, will probably say that which will never be repeated after him;" but because clear and just views on this subject have a close and important bearing upon the pursuit of science of all kinds, whether physical or metaphysical; upon the attainment and diffusion of truth; upon the mental and moral improvement, and consequently the harmony and happiness, of man. These clear and just views appear to be absent from the minds and writings of many whose names are of no small account in the literary and scientific world, although within easy reach of the inquiring, if they will use the glass supplied by the plain and manly writers of the true English school of philosophy. I venture upon it further, because Mr. Whewell, in the second edition of his pamphlet, declines going more at length into the matters touched upon by the reviewer. He has therefore left the field open to any one who may dare to enter the lists against that formidable and heavily-armed knight. The interest which may have been felt in the papers alluded to has perhaps already subsided, but the subject to which they relate is of permanent importance. Mr. Whewell discussed the relative value of different modes of pursuing mathematical studies, assuming their usefulness and importance. The reviewer, however, went into a much wider field, namely, the influence of mathematical studies upon the mental powers and character in general. And it was his strain of remark, so far as it was of a metaphysical character, his observations about "two logics," ""dissimilar de |