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/12

iv edition can claim. To facilitate, however, the interpretation of abstruse passages, brackets are employed, italic letters frequently used, and forcible examples marked by indices ;. besides which those arguments that support any theory or fact, and which are scattered over many pages or chapters, or even Essays, are indicated and connected by the numerals of some one particular fount ; and attention called to this connexion by notes, sometimes containing a complete recapitulation.

In those parts of the author's writings that are of a mixed character— moral and metaphysical— numerous quotations from the works of ancient philosophers occur in the original Ian- guages. All such extracts have been translated, not literally, but appropriately ; and given, not in substitution, but in addi- tion to the originals.

Hitherto the philosophical labours of this able and excellent man, the bold assailant of Locke, lay, like the Sibyl's leaves, where the winds had carried them. Henceforth, it is hoped,' their connexion, an end so valuable in such serious investiga- tions, will be unequivocally perceived; and some of the difficul- ties that have obstructed the study of pneumatology thereby alleviated, if not entirely removed.

G. N. W.

Coed Celyn, Llanrwst, Denbighshire. 1843.