ON THE HUMAN UNDERSTANDING: ABRIDGED FOR COLLEGIATE AND GENERAL USE. WITH A PRELIMINARY OUTLINE OF THE PLAN OF THE ORIGINAL WORK. BY JOHN MURRAY, A. M., LL. D. SOMETIME SCHOLAR OF TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN; AUTHOR OF "ORIGINAL VIEWS OF Τοιαῦτα κοινὰ τρόπον τινὰ ἁπάντων ἐστὶ γνωρίζειν, καὶ ὀνδε- HODGES AND SMITH, GRAFTON-STREET, BOOKSELLERS TO THE UNIVERSITY. MDCCCLII. 265, c. 44. PREFACE. THE purpose of the present undertaking is to edit the pure text of "LOCKE's Essay from a comparison of the best previous editions, in a compass more proportionate to the solid contents of the Work, in a forma more easy of access, and on a principle less liable as some particular objections than has been heretire attempted: in the hope that an acquaintamoe, at once read and ready, with that standard specimen u' ancien Bagishiy may thereby be semured sand extended. process of cartignave endeavoured to carry out by reduce repetions, diffusivenes, and irrelevant ante the Essay" are n nich many parts of tve felt, however, that nee convener hatt not be so far con e it, vill stion to be and prehe has *ance, My effort, therefore, has not been so much to reduce the given quantity to its lowest terms, as to construct an epitome such as should contain the least possible amount of matter irrelevant to the business of the Examination-hall, and to the advantage of the general reader. Indeed the amount of letter-press contained in this volume proves beforehand that the original Work cannot have been unduly curtailed in quantity: upon the quality of the selection made it will be for the careful collator to pronounce. It is here to be noted that if a good Compendium of LOCKE's celebrated Work could be produced, such a performance would have for its auspice the prospective sanction of the great philosopher himself -that it would, in fact, be but the realizing of his own suggestion: for, in his "Epistle to the Reader" (which, I regret, would, as a whole, be out of place in this volume), he observes of his "Essay," with his accustomed candour,-"I will not deny but possibly it might be reduced to a narrower compass than it is; and that some parts of it might be contracted; the way it has been writ in, by catches, and many long intervals of interruption, being apt to cause some repetitions. But, to confess the truth, I am now too lazy or too busy to make it shorter." The second of the proposed ends-that of presenting the text 'in a form more easy of access'-I have chiefly endeavoured to accomplish by carefully adapting the punctuation to the sense, which, |