Page:Essays on the active powers of the human mind; An inquiry into the human mind on the principles of common sense; and An essay on quantity.djvu/11

 EDITOR’S PREFACE.

Greater typographical accuracy is not the only advantage to which this edition of the author's works is entitled; it possesses the still further recommendation of being the only complete and perfect collection of his writings yet published. In the first volume are included, “An Account of Dr. Reid’s Life and Writings,” from the classic pen of Dugald Stewart; “Essays on the Active Powers of the Human Mind;” “ An Inquiry into the Human Mind, on the Principles of Common Sense ;” and “An Essay on Quantity :” the last has hitherto only appeared in the “ Philosophical Transactions.” The second volume contains the author's preclarum opus, “ Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man,” together with his “ View” or “ Analysis of Aristotle’s Logic,” first published in the works of Lord Kames, and subse- quently in a separate volume.

In the preparation of these Essays for the press and the pub- lic, one uniform method has been observed. Where it had not been previously done by the author, the chapters are divided, with scrupulous attention to each pause, or interruption in the

‘ chain of reasoning, into sections; and to every section, whether original or newly separated, headings are prefixed. These headings present a condensed view of the contents, argument, or arguments, in each section; and, as ff. as it could be done, they are so linked together in meaning as to afford a tolerably full, correct, and continuous synopsis of the author's theory. In these introductions, perhaps, consist the chief merit which this �