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ANALYTICAL ABRIDGMENT

OF

LOCKE'S ESSAY

CONCERNING

HUMAN UNDERSTANDING.

LONDON:

PRINTED BY J. M'CREERY,

FOR W H. LUNN, SOHO-SQUARE,

AND SOLD BY T. BARRETT, CAMBRIDGE; R. BLISS, OXFORD;
W. LAING, EDINBURGH; AND J. ARCHER, Dublin.

1808.

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PREFACE.

THE ESSAY ON HUMAN UNDERSTANDING forms part of that course of study which is appointed for students of the second year in Trinity College, Cambridge. This abstract of that celebrated work was made about twelve years since by an under-graduate of that society, solely with a view to his own improvement. Yet upon a re-perusal of the original, he cannot but think that the reasons which induced him to compose, may excuse him for publishing it.

In proportion to the intrinsic value of a work, it is to be regretted that it should lye under any disadvantages from its style or method: and it is hard to say whether an obscure brevity or a tedious prolixity tends more to discourage the reader; for as the first requires amplification by commentary, the second requires condensation by analysis. But an author may obscure his thoughts as much by too diffuse as by too concise a style; and if the subject is new or difficult, may not perceive that he sometimes labours rather to express himself than to impress the reader, and to

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