The Art of Logic and Rhetoric, Title page 1 – Encomium
A COMPENDIUM Of the ART of LOGICK AND RHETORICK in the English Tongue.
Containing All that PETER RAMUS, ARISTOTLE, and Others have writ thereon: WITH Plaine DIRECTIONS for the more easie understanding and practice of the same.
LONDON, Printed by Thomas Maxey, 1651.
To the Courteous Reader.
BEnevolent Reader, I do here present this small work, hoping it may produce good effects. Certainly it hath assai'd before time to thrust it selfe into the world, but that it found so kind friends, who considering the unworthyness, were pleased to suppresse it, and keep it prisoner in the Jail of their own houses. Howbeit now it is adventured abro…d, and with the spring beginneth to spring afresh. It's Winters imprisonment is like to better it's Summers condition…; for I have laboured, so far as I could, to prune and lop off the former errours, that it may be the more plausible. I have also adorned it with a new weed, to wit, of a Dialogue, or Questions and Answers, that so my Book may even learn to stoop to the weakest capacities. If i… shall be thought to come in a new fashion, may you please to look into the world, you may see abundance in this habit, our common Catechismes wear this gown; yea, Mr. St. Egerton of the Black Fryers in London, hath contracted the same treatises of Mr. Rogers into this form. For my part, I hold it more easie then the former tract, neither greatly prejudiciall to the Authour.
This adorned, I have given this my second sonne full liberty to be a freeman, banishing my first and worst labours from the view (so far as I can) of all men. For seeing it would not, when I would, I hold it not fit, that now it should be published. Touching that work, it flowed so inconsiderately from my penne, and slipped so rashly out of my hand, that it escaped not without many defaults, imperfections, obscurities and blemishes: that with the Egyptian Grashopper, it will not only consume some part, but utterly …at up and waste the golden season, and happy hours of the curteous Reader. Let this last work then, kind Reader, find favour in thine eyes: if that winter bird should be seen, it would appear like a Cuckow at Christmas, or like the Owle, which is the admiration of other birds. I will only now shew thee the causes producing this last work, and the use thereof, and so leave it to thy discreet judgement. The causes are manifold, first to stoppe the springing of that Abortive fore-spoken of, that so it might not thrive to the discredit of it's parent Secondly, that the gratuity and thankfulnesse to my Unkle aforesaid, might not to be buried in oblivion; for Tritum est perire, quod facis ingrato. Thirdly, for the benefit, as I said, of the simpliest capacity. And finally, for the zeal I bear to mine own Countrey, being willing and desirous, that not onelyonly men, but even women should exercise themselves in the studie of the sacred Arts.
If any shall demand what benefit shall redound hereby? or what may be the use hereof? I answer, it will avail greatly, not onelyonly for Civil, and Moral discourse, but also for the overthrowing of all Errors, either in Manners or Doctrine, for saith Ovid,
Adde quod ingenuas didicisse fideli…er artes,
Emollit mores, nec sinet esse feros.
But may some say, I live privately, …onverse not in the world; what need have I of this Science? It seemeth to consist chiefly in disputing, but I imploy my self most in silence and meditation. Well friend, thou mayst have great benefit by this Science, even in that likewise: an example of which, word for word, I have here produced out of Mr. Egertons Treatie aforesaid, that so thou mightest know how to benefit thy self by this science, even in thy Meditation.
What thing is this, O my soul, that doth so besot thee? or what manner of thing may it be, wherewith thou art so delighted, or rather bewitched? And how doth the Holy Ghost in the Scripture define it, and set it forth? who sinners but they that rebel against God, and against his holy will revealed in his Word? And what other thing is sin, but a breach and transgression of the Law of God, 1 Iohn, 3.4. A turning out of the way of life, as the phrase of the Old Testament doth import; and a swerving from the right mark and end, as the word useth in the New Testament to signifie, viz. The glory of God, and thine own salvation.
This cursed thing called sin, is not of one sort or kind; it is as a Monster of many heads, and (as it were) a beast of many Horns.
It is both original, bred and born with us; and actuall springing out of us from that venomous root of our Original Corruption.
Again, it is either inward, lurking… and boiling in the heart; or outward, shewing it self in the life and conversation: sometimes it onelyonly inhabi…th and dwelleth in us, and oft-times it doth reign and over-rule us; sometimes it is but an error and infirmity, and sometimes, it is a wilful and presumptious evil, Psal. 19.11,12. Sometimes it is pardonable by the Free Grace and MercieMercy of God, to them that truely believe and repent; and sometimes it is utterly unpardonable, and never to be forgiven, being such, that it is impossible that the Committers thereof should be renewed by repentance, Math. 12. Heb. 6. Sometimes it rusheth mediately, and directly against God; and sometimes it reacheth more properly to the hurt of our neighbour.
But who is able to reckon up all the Branches of this most bitter and venomous Tree; wherefore (to look more nearly unto it) whence proceedeth this d…adly poyson? what may be the cause whereof it cometh? and the Fountain from whence it springeth? Surely, my Soul, it is even thy self: thou art the Root that bringeth forth all this bitterness; thou art the Fountain from whence all this deadly Venome doth arise. For every man is tempted to sin, and he is drawn away of his own Concupiscence, and enticed.
Beware, therefore, O rebellious Soul! that thou lay not the blame upon the Lord; neither make him the Author of thy sin: For thou, O God, as thou canst not be tempted to evil they self, so thou temptest no man to commit sin, being a thing which thou so strictly forbiddest to all, and so severely threatnest in whomsoever it is found; and for which thou so grievously plaguest the wicked, and so sharply correctest thine own Children, Iames 1,13,14. Heb. 12. 7,8. Thou, O Lord, art holiness it self, and the Fountain thereof; And there is none eternally, and unchangeably good, but thee alone, Math. 19. Thou madest man good at the beginning, but he sought many inventions, Eccles. 12. So all the imaginations and thoughts of his heart became onelyonly evil continually, or every day, Sabbath and all, Gen. 6. 5.
True it is indeed, That the Divel that old Dragon, using the subtil Serpent for his instrument, did offer the first occasion of sinning, whereby he became an external cause of sin, and is called a Mutherer from the beginning, and the Author and Father of all deceit, Iohn 8.44. Yet man had power to have resisted him if he would, which he not doing, became the true and proper efficient cause of Corrupting himself, and all his posterity; who likewise, by means of the poyson derived from his Loyns, became also the proper and immediate causes o… their own sins.
Mark well then (O my Soul) the Root of this evil; and furthrr consider, what unsavory and cursed fruit it bringeth forth; surely, even such as it self is, for such as the Tree is, such are the fruits: as is the root, so are the branches: a poysoned fountain, casteth forth no wholesome streams, Iames 3. And who can bring (as the Wiseman saith) a clean thing out of filthiness? surely there is not one, but onelyonly he who is holiness it self, Iohn 14.4. And without all Controversie, the reward and wages of sin, is death… and that not onelyonly temporal, and bodily, which is a separation of the body from the soul for a season, but also spiritual and eternal, both of soul and body for ever and ever. Is any good thing with…held from us? let us thank our sin for it: is any plague or punishment laid upon us? be sure that sin is the cause, or at the least (even in the dearest Children of God) the occasion of it. Is any good blessing of God made of no force, or even turned to a Curse to us? we may be sure that it is by reason of our sin: for (as the Prophet saith) The Lords hand is not shortned that it cannot save, nor his ear heavy that it cannot hear, but our iniquities separate betwixt us and our God, and our sins do hide his face from us that he will not hear, Esay 59. 1, 2. Finally (as Iob saith) Misery springeth not forth of the dust, neither doth Affliction spring one of the earth, but man is born to labour as the sparkles flie upward, Job. 5. 6, 7. As if he should say, Man is as prone by nature to sin against God, and consequently to pull Gods judgements upon himself, as the fire (which is a light Element) is naturally prone to ascend and mount aloft.
And to the end that thou (my soul) maist see upon what an ugly monster thou hast set thy delight, dost do…e upon, and art bewitched withall, consider how fair and how amible piety and vertue are; for as they make a man lovely and honourable, so sin maketh him loathsome and contemptible: The fear of God (saith Solomon) makes the face of a man to shine and be beautifull, but impiety and profanesse do deface and disfigure the image of God in him, and cause both God and all good men to loath & detest him as a polluted and… filthy thing, Favour (saith the same Wise-man) is deceitfull, and beauty is vanity; but the woman that feareth …he Lord, shee shal be praised, Prov. 31.39. A vile person is contemned (that is, a prophane man and basely esteemed, how great soever he be in the world) in the eyes of him that feareth God, Psal. 15.4. And piety is the only beauty that the Lord himselfe is delighted with, 1 Pet. 3.4. Therefore it is clear in the contrary part, that he loatheth and abhorreth impiety and sin. And yet my soul, to bring thee further out of love with this most ugly monster, consider whereunto it is like, and to what it may be compared. It is like (saith Esay) to filthy raggs, that are cast aside upon the dunghill, and detested of all the passers by. It biteth as a serpent, and stingeth as a Coccatrice, creepeth as a gangrene or deadly canker, that eateth to the heart and cannot be cured; and though it seeme sweet in the begiuning, yet it is most bitter in the end, and that which relisheth like hony in the mouth, will prove ranke poyson in the bowels. Finally, O my soul if thou peruse the holy Scriptures, thou shalt find no book, no leafe, no chapter… nor scarce any verse, wh…rin there is not some precept, some prohibition, some promise, some threatning or some example which seems not very fitly and profitably to shew forth the amiableness of vertue, and the uglinesse of sin, and with what care, zeal, wat…lnesse, &c. the one is to be shun…, and the other to be imbraced. Thus far Mr. Egerton, Lib. 3, Cap. 6.
Now that thou maist attain (kind reader) unto this sweet delight of meditation, or to the top of whatsoever felicity thou aimest at by this art, use my book in this manner following.
It consisting only of rules and examples, will be no great burthen for thee to commit it all to memory; and so, whether thou meditatest or discoursest of sin or piety in the generall, or any vice or vertue in the particular, thou shalt find from the head of this Art, after the example foreshewed, abundance of matter to furnish thy meditation. So, cum paucis sapientibus, I commit my labour to thy discreet and favourable construction, and with equall respect to all indifferently rest.
R. F. Iunior.
PETER RAMUS to the READER.
ARchymedes (O Reader) would have the re… of the Spheres and Cli…tes (in which Invention hee had more vehemently laboured) ingraven upon his sepulchre. And truly, shouldst thou ask me of my vigils and studies, I desire a pillar to be raised upon my grave from the instructions of the Art of Logick. Touching the cause of the wish; they answer, first to the accurateness of the Art: the books of invention of Arguments, and their disposition to be judged, not onelyonly from Aristotle Organicall, Rhetoricall, Physicall: but from Cicero and Quintilian, and so many Orators. In all which wee have strived with all study and diligence, by all reasonable wayes to contract them briefly into these two Books, that no particle, or the least shadow of Logick might be there confused, whose truth might not be expresly delivered. And this shall be first made known touching Archymedes his Probleme. They answer secondly to the use of Logick, the elegance and dignity of all the parts to be explicated, to stir up Logicall meditations, as well the popular phrases of Poets, Orators, Historiographers; as also the liberall and ingenuous arts of a new Body, delivered in a new form to the studious, adorned with excellent indowments: And le…t any should fear le…t they should happen to be strangers, they are given and committed to the liberall custodies of their schools. This shalbe secondly made known touching Archymedes his problem. Those therefore shall be witness of so many day and night watches, touching the truth and utility of Logick, and shall answer for the cause of our wish; shall also admonish thee (Reader) as I hope, of I know not what madnesse is in most Academies of Europe, disputing of their sophisticall precepts, how that they are far unlike both to the verity and utility of Logick, and shall also inflame thee to the study of the more true and profitable Faculties. But beside this, there is objected, a great company, exstructed with theatricall reproaches, threatning pains of tribunal judgment, condemnation at the least of filthy ignorance and calumny, will thrust us from the whole Kingdom of Philosophy, as strange and unheard o… prescription, both with hands and tongue. Whither will they forbid the small cause of our wish? what freedom was obtained by King Henry from the envie of so mad a Iudg; or to the more solid judgment of a milder Censurer? What afterward (when this Logicall order had set foot in the cause of Religion) was a more great offence, the life and health of us being aimed at by those three civill wars? will these shew no cause of our wish? yea, rather they do admonish, That we give great thanks to the Almighty, who hath ayded and protected the course of our studies hitherto, neither would suffer them by any means to be interrupted. Therefore I witnesse, that this light of Logick will avail greatly to the studious in setting forth the truth, as also to adorn the ingenuous Arts; as chiefly the illustrating the heavenly mysteries of the sacred Doctrine: I pray that it may grow up more and more to these things; and that this Book may be happily concluded, to the glory of God.
A TABLE OF THE Chapters in the two Books of Peter Ramus his DIALECTICA.
In the first Book.
1. The definition of Dialectica.
2. The parts and kinds of arguments.
3. The Efficient procrean… and Conservant cause.
4. The Efficient alone, and with others.
5. The Efficient by himself, or an Accident.
6. The Matter.
7. The Form.
8. The End.
9. The Effects.
10. The Subject.
11. The Adjunct.
12. Diverses.
13. Desperates.
14. Relates.
15. Adverses.
16. Contradicents.
17. Privants.
18. Equalls.
19. Greaters.
20. Lessers.
21. Likes.
22. Dislikes.
23. Conjugates.
24. Notation.
25. Distribution.
26. Distribution of the Causes.
27. Distribution of the Effects, whether of Kind or Species.
28. The Distribution from the Subjects
29. The Distribution from the Adjunct
30. Definition. 31. Description.
32. Testimony Divine.
33. Testimonies humane of Laws and Sentences.
In the second Book.
1. Of Iudgement.
2. Axiomas affirming or denying.
3. True and False.
4. The simple Axioma.
5. the copulate Axioma.
6. The connexed Axioma.
7. The Descrete Axioma.
8. The disjunct Axioma.
9. The Syllogisme and his parts.
10. The …imple and contraected syllogism.
11. The first kind of the simple explicate Syllogism.
12. The simple explicate Syllogism.
13. The first connexed Syllogism.
14. The second connexed Syllogism.
15. The first disjunct Syllogism.
16. The second disjunct Syllogism.
17. The onelyonly method according to Aristotle.
18. The first illustration of Method by examples of arts.
19. The second example of Poets, Orators. and Historiographers.
20. The secrets of Method.
In Laudem Scientia Dialecticae sacrae.
THe sacred Sciences do Praeise deserve,
And merit Laud, because that they conserve,
The use of Manners; also do declare
What things in Man most acceptable are.
But 'mongst them, all there's none so high in Reach
As Dialectica, which reasoning doth teach.
This at the first from God Almighty came,
From Heaven descended this bright shining flame.
God Reason taught, and Man he did inspire
With Faculties, which Logick doth require.
The Matter, Precepts, Form Methodical,
The end is Reasons use, to teach t'h unlearned all.
Th' effects are divers, which I cannot tell,
Except I had a tongue which did excell.
The Artes before confusedly did lie,
Till Logicks use compos'd them curiously.
But what do I discoursing of this thing,
When Praises to the worth the Learned cannot sing?