THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE MIN D. PART FIRST. CONTAINING A VARIETY OF REMARKS AND RULES, FOR THE ATTAINMENT AND COMMUNICATION OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE, IN RELIGION, IN THE SCIENCES, AND IN COMMON LIFE. Berwick: PRINTED FOR THE BOOKSELLEKS, THE PREFACE: IN N the last page of the Treatife of Logic which I pub. lifhed many years ago, it is obferved, that there are feveral other things which might affift the cultivaltion of the mind, and its improvement in knowledge, which are not ufually reprefented among the principles or precepts of that art or fcience. which compofe this book; these are the fentiments Thefe are the fubjects and rules, many of which I had then in view, and which I now venture into public light. The prefent treatife, if it may affume the honour of that name, is made up of a variety of remarks and directions for the improvement of the mind in useful knowledge. It was collected from the obfervations which I had made on my own ftudies, and on the temper and fentiments, the humour and conduct of other men in their pursuit of learning, or in the affairs of life; and it has been confiderably ailifted by occafional collections in the courfe of my reading, from many authors and on different fubjects. I confefs, far the greatest part, I ftand bound to anfwer for the weakneffes or defects that will be found in thefe papers, not being able to point to other writers, whence the twentieth part of them is derived. The work was compofed at different times, and by flow degrees. Now and then, indeed it spread itself into branches and leaves like a plant in April and advan |