Knowledge of it, by refolving it into its first Principles or component Parts, whether Species or Individuals, and defcribes the Natures and Properties of each of them feparately; and thus you obtain the Knowledge of the Whole compleatly. This Method has place in teaching the where used. Philological Sciences, as Grammar, Rhetoric, Logic, Metaphyfics, Poetry, Philofophy, &c. as alfo in Anatomy, Algebra, &c. And indeed in many Cafes both the Synthetic and Analytic are conjoin'd, the better to find out Truth, and to communicate it.

THE Rules of good Method, whether Ana- The Rules of lytic or Synthetic, are comprised under the fol- good Method. lowing Heads. (1.) It must be safe, your Propofitions firm and well grounded in every Refpect, that fo they may be fecure from Error. (2.) It fhould be plain and eafy, that fo it may exhibit a clear and comprehenfive View of the whole Scheme and Defign. (3.) It should be diftinct, and free from all perplexing Mixture of Things which ought to be kept feparate, that fo Confufion may be evited. (4.) It should be plenary or full, fo that nothing may be wanting that is proper and neceffary. (5.) It should be fhort, or without Superfluity, and the Whole conducted with a well-concerted Brevity. (6.) It fhould be proper to the Subject in hand, to the prefent Defign, as well as to the Age and Place wherein you live. (7.) The Parts of the Difcourfe fhould be well connected, dependent, and cobering by proper and graceful Tranfitions; by which means the Reader is fo infenfibly entertain'd, and led on, that he knows not how to leave off till he hath arrived at the End,

Of

Of METAPHYSICS or ONTOLOGY, or the SCIENCE of BEING abstractedly confider'd.

ENTOLOGY is a Science which ONTOLOGY treats of Being or Entity, and its defined. Properties; and that abstractedly in its own fimple Nature, and not as it relates to Bodies and Forms, which is the Business of Phyfics or Natural Philofophy; or to Quantity, which is of a Mathematical Confideration; but abfolutely as it relates to the Existence of all Things indifferently. This Doctrine was formerly call'd Metaphyfics.

Being, Entity, and Existence are all Synony- Being, Entity, mous Words, and only fignify the State of that and Existence, which is or doth exist, purely as existing; what.

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much that all particular Ideas, of Body, Form or Quality, are excluded, fince Being is the abfolute original State, and primary Property neceffary to all of them.

BUT the fame Words Being, Entity, Existence, The fame in a when used in a more restrain'd Senfe, do alfo fig- refrain'd Senfe. nify Things themselves which do exift; but then it is fimply and purely with regard to them as fuch, i. e. as Things existing only, without any Reference to Modes or Qualities inherent in them. As when we fay, The Planets may be inhabited by fome Sort of Beings: The Fairies are not real but imaginary Beings, &c. Tho' the Word

Q 2

Beings

Beings is more commonly used than Entities, and Existence never in the Plural, and feldom in the Singular to exprefs the Thing existing. The Subject of In this Senfe, Being or Entity is the Object Ontology. of this Science, which occafion'd it to be call'd Ontology by the Greeks, that Word with them importing the Doctrine of Beings abstractedly confider'd; and fince. the Notion of Being or Entity in the Abstract is the very Scul of this Science, it will be neceffary to explain in the next Flace, what Abstraction is, and what is meant by Being in the Abstract.

Abstraction what.

Is of tavo
Kinds.

ABSTRACTION, then, is that Faculty of the Mind, whereby we confider, and contemplate the various Relations, Properties, and Qualities of Bodies, alone, or as they are in themfelves, and not as they are in the Bodies. By this Act of the Mind, we as it were feparate and withdraw it from the Body and all other Modes and Relations, and view it in itself; and thus (to fpeak with the Schools) we deduce a Thing from a fingular to an univerfal State. Abftraction is of two Kinds, viz. Precifive and Negative.

Of Precifive Precifive Abstraction is when we consider those Abstraction. Things apart, which cannot really exift apart; as when we confider a Mode or Property apart from the Subject, or one effential Mode without another. Thus I can confider that which we call white in a Wall, but in my Mind I can abstract this from its fingular State, in its Subject the Wall, and confider it in a more univerfal State, as a Quality which I call Whitenefs; and find it may be attributed to a great Variety of Subjects, as Milk, Snow, Chalk, Eggs, &c. Thus the round Shape of a Globe, I abstractedly confider as a Quality, and find it, as fuch, in feveral other Subjects, and of different

Kinds; as the Roundness of a Circle, the Roundness of a Cylinder, &c. Alfo Whiteness and Roundness may be confider'd apart, not only from the Subjects the Wall and the Globe, but diftinctly from all other Modes and Relations belonging to them, as Height, Solidity, Weight, &c.

Negative Abstraction is when we confider one of Negative Thing feparate from another, which may alfo Abstraction. exist without it. As when we conceive of a Subject without regarding its accidental Modes and Relations; or when we conceive of one Accident without thinking of another. As when I conceive the Idea of a Needle, without the Idea of its Sharpness, it is a Negative Abstraction; and it is the fame when I think of a Book, without the Idea of Reading or Writing; or when I think of reading without confidering the Manner, whether Vocally or Mentally.

or Concrete.

THINGS thus conceived of, or reprefented When Things apart from the Subject, in the Manner as above are faid to be defcribed, are faid to be in the Abstract; but in the Abstract when they are particularly confider'd with or inberent in their Subjects, they are then faid to be confider'd in the Concrete or Subject. Or thus, we fay, white, round, tall, witty, weighty, lively, dead, mortal, &c. in the Concrete; but, in the Abstract, we fay, Whiteness, Roundness, Tallness, Wittiness, Weightiness, Livelinefs, Deadness, Mertality, &c.

HAVING thus diftinguifh'd or fpecified the Manner of Conception of Being or Existence in our Minds; I fhall next enumerate the Kinds of Being, and then the peculiar Properties belonging thereto, and which diftinguish them from one another.

Ma- of Being, fub

I think all Being in the Univerfe may be di- of the Kinds ftributed into two General Kinds, viz. (1.) Q3

Atantial and terial modal.