LONDON: Printed by H. WOODFALL, For J. NOURSE oppofite to Catherine-street, M. DCC. LI, To the Right Honourable PHILIP Lord HARDWICKE, My Lord, A3 S no one has exercised the Powers of Speech with juster and more univerfal applause, than yourself; I have prefumed to inscribe the following Treatife to your Lordship, its End being to investigate the Principles of those Powers. It has a farther claim to your Lordfhip's Patronage, by being connected in fome degree with that politer Literature, which, in the most important scenes A 2 of iii of Bufinefs, you have ftill found time to cultivate. With regard to myself, if what I have written be the fruits of that Security and Leifure, obtained by living under a mild and free Government; to whom for this am I more indebted, than to your Lordship, whether I confider you as a Legiflator, or as a Magistrate, the first both in dignity and reputation? Permit me therefore thus publicly to affure your Lordship, that with the greatest gratitude and respect I am, My Lord, Your Lordship's moft obliged, and most obedient bumble Servant. Salisbury, 0, 1, 1751 James Harris. 1 PREFACE. T HE chief End, propofed by the Author of this Treatife in making it public, has been to excite his Readers to curiofity and inquiry; not to teach them himself by prolix and formal Lectures, (from the efficacy of which be bas little expectation,) but to induce them, if poffible, to become Teachers to themfelves, by an impartial ufe of their own understandings. He thinks nothing more abfurd than the common notion of Inftruction, as if Science were to be poured into the Mind, like water into a ciftern, that paffively waits to receive all that The growth of Knowlege be rather thinks to resemble the growth of Fruit; however external caufes may in fome degree co-operate, 'tis the internal vigour, and virtue of comes. A 3 the |