A SERIES OF ESSAYS, CRITICAL, MORAL, AND MISCELLANEOUS. BY JOHN OLDBUG, Esq. Ecce Somniator venit! Vulgate, Gen. xxxvii. 19. VOL. II. BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY PERKINS & MARVIN. PHILADELPHIA: HENRY PERKINS. 1836. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1836, By PERKINS & MARVIN, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. CONTENTS TO VOLUME II. XXXII. The same subject-A Touch on Abolitionism, XLIII. Caucuses-The Necessity and Wisdom of them, XLIV. Town Meeting Described-The Learned Cobbler, THE PURITAN. No. 31. -Find out moon-shine; find out moon-shine. Midsummer Night's Dream. I HAVE illustrated the vagueness of general terms, (out of which general principles must be formed,) in instances brought from material objects; because such exemplifications are most clear and convincing. But the remark is stronger when applied to intellectuals. Of these, the most specific parts are more dark than of tangible substances; and of course general terms must increase the obscurity. "Indeed," says one of the greatest metaphysicians of our own country, "there is a vast indistinctness, and unfixedness in most, or at least very many of the terms used to express things pertaining to moral and spiritual matters. Whence arise innumerable mistakes, strong prejudices, inextricable confusion, and endless controversy!" |