(14.) Abstract science is independent of a system of nature,--of a
creation,--of every thing, in short, except memory, thought, and
reason. Its objects are, first, those primary existences and relations
which we cannot even conceive not to _be_, such as space, time,
number, order, &c.; and, secondly, those artificial forms, or symbols,
which thought has the power of creating for itself at pleasure, and
substituting as representatives, by the aid of memory, for combinations
of those primary objects and of its own conceptions,--either to
facilitate the act of reasoning respecting them, or as convenient
deposits of its own conclusions, or for their communication to others.
Such are, first, _language_, oral or written; its conventional forms,
which constitute grammar, and the rules for its use in argument,
in which consists the logic of the schools; secondly, _notation_,
which, applied to _number_, is _arithmetic_,--and, to the more general
relations of abstract quantity or order, is _algebra_; and, thirdly,
that higher kind of logic, which teaches us to use our reason in the
most advantageous manner for the discovery of truth; which points
out the criterions by which we may be sure we have attained it; and
which, by detecting the sources of error, and exposing the haunts where
fallacies are apt to lurk, at once warns us of their danger, and shows
us how to avoid them. This greater logic may be termed _rational_[4];
while, to that inferior department which is conversant with words
alone, the epithet _verbal_[5] may, for distinction, be applied.
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