Elements of the philosophy of the human mind. By Dugald Stewart. Rev. and abridged, with critical and explanatory notes, for the use of colleges and schools. By Francis Bowen ...

1 12 ABSTRACT1ON.
force their immediate assent; it is frequently of use to him to
clothe his reasonings in that specific and figurative language,
which may either awaken in their minds associations favorable
to his purpose, or may divert their attention from a logical examination of his argument. A process of reasoning so expressed, affords at once an exercise to the judgment, to the
imagination, and to the passions; and is apt, even when loose
and inconsequential, to impose on the best understandings.
It appea'rs further, from the remarks which have been made,
that the perfection of philosophical language, considered either
as an instrument of thought, or as a medium of communication
with others, consists in the use of expressions, which, from their
generality, have no tendency to awaken the powers of conception and imagination; or, in other words, it consists in its approaching, as nearly as possible, in its nature, to the language
of algebra. And hence the effects-which long habits of philosophical speculation have in weakening, by disuse, those faculties of the mind, which are necessary for the exertions of the
poet and the orator; and of gradually forming a style of composition, which they who read merely for amusement, are apt to
censure for a want of vivacity and of ornamen'lt.*
III. Remzares on the opinions of some modern philosophers on
the subject of the foregoing section. - After the death of Abelard, through whose abilities and eloquence the. sect of Nominalists had enjoyed, for a few years, a very splendid triumph, the
system of the Realists began to revive; and it was soon so completely reestablished in the schools, as to prevail, with little or
no opposition, till the fourteenth century. What the circumL "Language, like light, is a medium: and the true philosophical style,
like light from a north window, exhibits objects clearly and distinctly
without soliciting attention to itself. In painting subjects of amusement
indeed, language may gild somewhat more, and color with the dyes of
fancy; but where information is of more importance than entertainment,
though you cannot throw too strong a light, you should carefully avoid a
colored one. The style of some writers resembles a bright light placed be,
tween the eye, and the thing to be looked at. The light shows itself, and
hides the object." - Gilpin.