something that belongs to all alike, in contradiction to proper, peculiar, &c.

COMMON COUNCIL. COUNCIL.

COMMON LAW, that body of rules received as law in England, before any statute was enacted in parliament to alter the same. See Law.

COMMON-PLACE BOOK, is a register of what things occur, worthy to be noted, in the course of a man's thinking or study, so disposed, as that, among a number of subjects, any one may be easily found. The advantages of making a common-place book are many: it not only makes a man read with accuracy and attention, but induces him insensibly to think for himself, provided he considers it not so much as a register of sentiments that strike him in the course of reading, but as a register of his own thoughts upon various subjects. Many valuable thoughts occur even to men of no extraordinary genius. These, without the assistance of a common-place-book, are generally lost both to himself and others. There are various methods of arranging common-place books; that of Mr Locke is as good as any that have hitherto been contrived.

The first page of the book you intend to take down their common-place in, is to serve as a kind of index to the whole; and to contain references to every place or matter therein: in the commodious contrivance of which index, so as it may admit of a sufficient copia or variety of materials, without any confusion, all the secret of the method consists.

In order to this, the first page, as already mentioned, or, for more room, the two first pages that front each other, are to be divided, by parallel lines, into 25 equal parts; whereof, every fifth line to be distinguished, by its colour or other circumstance. These lines are to be cut perpendicularly by others, drawn from top to bottom; and in the several spaces thereof, the several letters of the alphabet, both capital and minuscule, are to be duly wrote.

The form of the lines and divisions, both horizontal and perpendicular, with the manner of writing the letters therein, will be conceived from the following specimen; wherein, what is to be done in the book for all the letters of the alphabet, is here shewn in the first four, A, B, C, and D.

The index of the common-place book thus formed, matters are ready for the taking down anything therein.

In order to this, consider to what head the thing you would enter is most naturally referred; and under which one would be led to look for such a thing: in this head, or word, regard is had to the initial letter, and the first vowel that follows it; which are the characteristic letters whereon all the use of the index depends.

Suppose, (e.g.) I would enter down a passage that refers to the head Beauty; B, I consider, is the initial letter, and e the first vowel: then, looking upon the index for the partition B, and therein the line e, (which is the place for all words whose first letter is B, and first vowel e; as Beauty, Beneficence, Bread, Breeding, Blamethers,) and finding no numbers already down to direct me to any page of the book where words of this characteristic have been entered, I turn forward to the first blank page I find, which, in a fresh book, as this is supposed to be, will be page 2, and here write what I have occasion for on the head Beauty; beginning the head in the margin, and indenting all the other subservient lines, that the head may stand out and thieve itself: this done, I enter the page where it is wrote, viz. 2, in the index, in the space, B e; from which time, the clas B e becomes wholly in possession of the 2d and 3d pages, which are configned to letters of this characteristic.

Had I found any page or number already entered in the space B e, I must have turned to the page, and have wrote my matter in what room was left therein: so, if after entering the passage on beauty, I should have occasion for benevolence, or the like, finding the number 2 already possessed of the space of this characteristic, I begin the passage on benevolence in the remainder of the page, which not containing the whole, I carry it on to page 3, which is also for B e; and add the number 3 in the index.