3. ought to be difpofed. It will be understood by reading what follows, what is the meaning of the Latin titles on the top of the backfide of each leaf, and at the bottom [a little below the top] of this page. EBIONITE.] In eorum evangelio, quod fecundum. Hebræos dicebatur, hiftoria quæ habetur Matth. xix. 16. et alia quædam, erat interpolata in hunc modum: "Dixit ad eum alter divitum, magifter, quid bonum faciens vivam? Dixit ei Dominus, legem & prophetas, fac. Refpondit ad eum, feci. Dixit ei: vade, vende omnia quæ "poffides, & divide pauperibus, & veni, fequere me. Cœpit autem dives fcalpere caput "fuum, & non placuit ei. Et dixit ad eum "Dominus: quomodo dicis, legem feci & pro

phetas? cùm fcriptum fit in lege, diliges "proximum tuum ficut teipfum : & ecce multi "fratres tui filii Abrahæ amicti funt ftercore, "morientes præ fame, & domus tua plena eft "bonis multis, & non egreditur omnino aliquid "ex eâ ad eos. Et converfus, dixit Simoni, difcipulo fuo, fedenti apud fe : Simon, fili Johan"næ, facilius eft camelum intrare per foramen "acûs, quam divitem in regnum coelorum." Nimirum hæc ideo immutavit Ebion, quia Chriftum nec Dei filium, nec voμolérny, fed nudum interpretem legis pcr Mofem datæ agnoscebat.

In the Gofpel of the Ebionites, which they called the Gospel according to the Hebrews, the ftory, that is in the xixth of St. Matth. and in the 16th and following verfes, was changed after this manner: "One of the rich men faid to him: "Mafter, what fhall I do that I may have life? "Jefus faid to him: Obey the law and the pro

phets. He answered, I have done fo. Jefus "faid unto him, Go, fell what thou haft, divide "it among the poor, and then come and follow me. Upon which the rich man began to "fcratch his head, and to dislike the advice of Jefus and the Lord faid unto him, How can you fay you have done as the law and the prophets

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V. 10.

ADVERSARIORUM METHODUS.] I take a paper book 4. of what fize I pleafe. 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 fee in the table prefixed. I put about the middle of each five spaces one of the twenty letters I defign 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 foever 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 lefs volume, fmaller 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 fome important and effential 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 fupplied 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. laft in my index, I preferve the regularity of my index, and diminish not in the leaft its extent; for it feldom 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 diftinction; but for more exactnefs a place may be affigned

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5. for Q. u. below the index, as I have formerly done. When I meet with any thing, that I think fit to put into my common-place-book, firft find a proper head. Suppofe, for example, that the head be EPISTOLA, I look unto the index for the first letter and the following vowel, which in this inftance are E. i. if in the space marked E. i. there is any number that directs me to the page defigned for words that begin with an E. and whose first vowel, after the initial letter, is I; I must then write under the word Epiftola, in that page, what I have to remark. I write the head in large letters, and begin a little way out into the margin, and I continue on the line, in writing what I have to say. I observe constantly this rule, that only the head appears in the margin, and that it be continued on, without ever doubling the line in the margin, by which means the heads will be obvious at firft fight.

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If I find no number in the index, in the space E. i. I look into my book for the firft backfide of a leaf that is not written in, which, in a book where there is yet nothing but the index, muft 2. P. I write then, in my index after E. i. the number 2. and the head Epiftola at the top of the margin of the fecond page, and all that I put under that head, in the fame page, as you fee I have done in the fecond page of this method. From that time the clafs E. i. is wholly in poffeffion of the fecond and third pages.

They are to be employed only on words that begin with an E, and whofe nearest vowel is an I, as Ebionita (fee the third page) Epifcopus, Echinus, Edictum, Efficacia, &c. The reason, why I begin always at the top of the backfide of a leaf, and affign to one clafs two pages, that face one another, rather than an entire leaf, is, because the heads of the clafs appear

all

ADVERSARIORUM METHODUS.] all at once, without the V. trouble of turning over a leaf.

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Every time, that I would write a new head, I look first in my index for the characteristic letters of the words, and I fee, by the number that follows, what the page is that is affigned to the clafs of that head. If there is no number, I must look for the first backfide of a page that is blank. I then fet down the number in the index, and defign that page, with that of the right fide of the following leaf, to this new class. Let it be, for example, the word Adverfaria; if I see no number in the space A. e. I seek for the first backfide of a leaf, which being at p. 4. I fet down in the space A. e. the number 4. and in the fourth page the head ADVERSARIA, with all that I write under it, as I have already informed you. From this time the fourth page with the fifth that follows is referved for the class A. e. that is to say, for the heads that begin with an A, and whofe next vowel is an E; as for inftance, Aer, Aera, Agefilaus, Acheron, &c.

When the two pages defigned for one clafs are full, I look forwards for the next backfide of a leaf, that is blank. If it be that which immediately follows, I write at the bottom of the margin, in the page that I have filled, the letter V, that is to fay, Verte, turn over; as likewise the fame at the top of the next page. If the pages, that immediately follow, are already filled by other claffes, I write, at the bottom of the page laft filled, V, and the number of the next empty backfide of a page. At the beginning of that page I write down the head, under which I go on, with what I had to put in my commonplace-book, as if. it had been in the fame page. At the top of this new backfide of a leaf, I fet down the number of the page I filled laft. By thefe numbers which refer to one another, the firft whereof is at the bottom of one page, and

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the fecond is at the beginning of another, one joins matter that is feparated, as if there was nothing between them. For, by this reciprocal reference of numbers, one may turn, as one leaf, all thofe that are between the two, even as if they were pafted together. You have an example of this in the third and tenth pages.

Every time I put a number at the bottom of a page, I put it alfo into the index; but when I put only an V, I make no addition in the index; the reafon whereof is plain.

If the head is a monofyllable and begins with a vowel, that vowel is at the fame time both the first letter of the word, and the characteristic vowel. Therefore I write the word Ars in A a and Os in O o.

You may fee by what I have faid, that one is to begin to write each clafs of words, on the backfide of a page. It may happen, upon that account, that the backfide of all the pages may be full, and yet there may remain feveral pages, on the right hand, which are empty. Now if you have a mind to fill your book, you may affign thefe right fides, which are wholly blank, to new claffes.

If any one imagines that these hundred claffes are not fufficient to comprehend all forts of fubjects without confufion, he may follow the fame method, and yet augment the number to five hundred, in adding a vowel. But having experienced both the one and the other method, I prefer the firft; and ufage will convince thofe, who fhall try it, how well it will ferve the purpofe aimed at; efpecially if one has a book for each fcience, upon which one makes collections, or at least two for the two heads, to which one may refer all our knowledge, viz. moral philofophy, and natural.

You may add a third, which may be called, the knowledge of figns, which relates to the ufe

YOL. II.

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of.