INTRODUCTION.
It is one thing for a man to convince himself, but a very different thing to be able to convince others.
I am not now speaking of a conviction arising from the impression made by a few startling facts, nor of one forced on the mind by early prejudices, or by the dogmas of the schools, but of a conviction arising from careful enquiry.
In the course of that enquiry, the collector of facts, sees their relations to the idea in his mind, in a multiplicity of ways, from their remaining, each, as one succeeds the other, an appreciable time on the sensorium, and undergoing a certain process of comparison and relation, with all other facts and ideas which have been previously stored up. As the materials for an edifice which have been shaped and prepared in accordance with the completion of the design, so do the facts and ideas which are accumulated
in the mind, become shaped and prepared for the elimination of a truth. The ultimate design of the architect can no more be conceived by the examination of the framework of a window, or the capital of a column, than the whole truth of a proposition by the examination of separate facts; the whole must be conceived and all the relations of all the parts thoroughly understood, before the architect can be comprehended or the harmony of his design appreciated.
The process of thought in the minds of the architect, and in the framer of a proposition, is never exactly the same as in those who contemplate and examine their completed works. Much may be done, however, by both to aid others in comprehending them. The more accurately they keep in view the course their minds have taken, the more readily will their descriptions be understood.
To simplify the elements of our knowledge is to give others a ready access to our thoughts.
To arrange the course of our ideas in harmony with the elements of our knowledge should be the end of all writing, as it is the only means of multiplying knowledge.