EPISTOLA.] A letter from Mr. Locke to Mr. 2. Toignard, containing a new and easy method of a common-place-book, to which an index of two pages is sufficient. AT length, sir, in obedience to you, I publish Before I enter on my subject, it is fit to acquaint the reader, that this tract is disposed in the same manner that the common-place-book 3. ought to be disposed. It will be understood by reading what follows, what is the meaning of the Latin titles on the top of the backside of each leaf, and at the bottom [a little below the top] of this page. EBIONITE.] In eorum evangelio, quod secundum Hebræos dicebatur, historia quæ habetur Matth. xix. 16. et alia quædam, erat interpolata in hunc modum: "Dixit ad eum alter divitum, magister, "quid bonum faciens vivam? Dixit ei Domi"nus, legem & prophetas, fac. Respondit ad eum, feci. Dixit ei: vade, vende omnia quæ "possides, & divide pauperibus, & veni, se66 quere me. Cœpit autem dives scalpere caput "suum, & non placuit ei. Et dixit ad eum "Dominus: quomodo dicis, legem feci & prophetas? cùm scriptum sit in lege, diliges 86 66 proximum tuum sicut teipsum: & ecce multi "fratres tui filii Abrahæ amicti sunt stercore, "morientes præ fame, & domus tua plena est "bonis multis, & non egreditur omnino aliquid "ex eâ ad eos. Et conversus, dixit Simoni, discipulo suo, sedenti apud se: Simon, fili Johan"næ, facilius est camelum intrare per foramen "acûs, quam divitem in regnum coelorum. Nimirum hæc ideo immutavit Ebion, quia Christum nec Dei filium, nec vouobéry, sed nudum interpretem legis per Mosem datæ agnoscebat. In the Gospel of the Ebionites, which they called the Gospel according to the Hebrews, the story, that is in the xixth of St. Matth. and in the 16th and following verses, was changed after this manner: "One of the rich men said to him: "Master, what shall I do that I may have life? "Jesus said to him: Obey the law and the prophets. He answered, I have done so. Jesus 66 "said unto him, Go, sell what thou hast, divide "it among the poor, and then come and follow "me. Upon which the rich man began to "scratch his head, and to dislike the advice of "Jesus: and the Lord said unto him, How can you say you have done as the law and the proV. 10. 66 ADVERSARIORUM METHODUS.] I take a paper book 4. of what size I please. I divide the two first pages that face one another by parallel lines into five and twenty equal parts, every fifth line black, the other red. I then cut them perpendicularly by other lines that I draw from the top to the bottom of the page, as you may see in the table prefixed. I put about the middle of each five spaces one of the twenty letters I design to make use of, and, a little forward in each space, the five vowels, one below another, in their natural order. This is the index to the whole volume, how big soever it may be. The index being made after this manner, I leave a margin in all the other pages of the book, of about the largeness of an inch, in a volume, in folio, or a little larger; and, in a less volume, smaller in proportion. If I would put any thing in my CommonPlace-Book, I find out a head to which I may refer it. Each head ought to be some important and essential word to the matter in hand, and in that word regard is to be had to the first letter, and the vowel that follows it; for upon these two letters depends all the use of the index. I omit three letters of the alphabet as of no use to me, viz. K. Y. W. which are supplied by C. I. U. that are equivalent to them. I put the letter Q.. that is always followed with an u. in the fifth space of Z. By throwing Q. last in my index, I preserve the regularity of my index, and diminish not in the least its extent; for it seldom happens that there is any head begins with Z. u. I have found none in the five and twenty years I have used this method. If nevertheless it be necessary, nothing hinders but that one may make a reference after Q. u. provided it be done with any kind of distinction; but for more exactness a place may be assigned |