72 ^yisco7lsin Academy of Sciences^ Arts, and Letters. 



wie,' "tarn quam/' etc., arouse at once the suspicion that the 

 second '^as" may be of relative value. Moreover, history reveals 

 the original formula '^A is all so (=just so) great. All so great 

 is B." This pair of statements can hardly express a comparison 

 of equality unless the ^'^all so" of the one has the meaning of ^^all 

 so" in the other. Such meaning is that of some degree not fixed, 

 say ^^the degree," to distinguish it from other possible degrees. 

 For while this degree is far from definite it is not interchange- 

 able. It is indeed an x, but it may not be replaced by a y. 

 The meaning then of the original formula is ^'A is great to the 

 degree. To that (same degTee) gTeat is B." 



In that formula ^^all so" is plainly a common factor of two 

 statements, the first ''all so" being initiative and the second rein- 

 stative. By successive formal reductions each '^'all so" becomes 

 the modern "as" At the same time the two sentences coalesce, 

 producing (if all elements be retained) the single sentence "A is 

 as great as great is B." This coalescence, it should be noted, en- 

 tails an important change in thought procedure. My former 

 two installments of thought are condensed into one; and since 

 I may be supposed to conform my plan of thinking, for conven- 

 ience's sake at least, to my plan of exposition, it may be assumed 

 that mv thinking: itself is unbroken. That is, the idea of deo:ree 

 is not twice thought, with an intermediate lapse from attention, 

 but once thought only. In other words the idea of degree is now 

 a simultaneous factor. The second "as" can no longer be para- 

 phrased by "to that (same degree)," but must be rendered by "to 

 which (same degree)."^ Accordingly 



"A is as great as great is B" is equivalent to 

 "A is to the deaTee areat to which areat is B." 

 With a slight inversion the upper expression takes the form of 

 "A is as great as B is great." By ellipsis of terms readily in- 

 ferred, this form is changed to "A is as great as B — ." That 

 such inference occurs in fact, is hinted by the French equivalent 

 "A est aussi grand que B Test," in which "1" is the obvious 

 equivalent of "grand." Also even in English, whenever the 

 comparison is no longer between degrees of the same attribute, 



^The change from "demonstrative" to "relative" value is too common to ad- 

 mit of comment. 



