PREFACE.

view than his own; nor will it greatly surprise
him to discover, that he has fallen into errors
and misconceptions as deep and as radical as
any of those which he has found or fancied in
the speculations of others.
From the defects here imputed to the
science, it is evident that in any work, which
professes to examine and remove them, the
points discussed must be questions as to the
use of terms, the distinction of ideas, the logical

 dependence of arguments, rather than
questions of fact or evidence, and that its character
 will be essentially critical, and even
polemic. In endeavouring to define the nature
of ideas, to fix the meaning of terms, to investigate

 first principles, and to determine the
real objects and results of inquiry, it was impossible,
 it would have been worse than useless,
 not to advert to the works of preceding
writers, although at the expense perhaps of