Chap. IV. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 399 



in the language of Ariftotle. And this application of the middle 

 term, firft to one of the terms of the propofition, and then to the other, 

 is performed by that exercife of the intelle<St, which is very properly 

 called in Greek hccvo,x, becaufe the intelled, in this operation, goes be- 

 twixt the two terms, as it were, and pafles from the one to the other. 

 In Latin, as there is not the fame facility of compofition, it is expref- 

 fed by two words, difcurfus mentis^ mens being the fame thing in La- 

 tin, as N«t/j in Greek ; and the Latin expreffion is rendered into Eng- 

 lifh by difcourfc of reafon, or, as it is commonly called, reafoning^ 



When the difcurfus is performed, and the argumentation compleat- 

 cd, it is called by Ariftotle a fyllog\fm\ which, according to the ety- 

 mology of the word, imports that it is a collection : And undoubted- 

 ly the conclufion is a colledion from the premiHes ; and accordingly 

 it is defined by Ariftotle to be * Speech^ in which certain things be- 

 *' ing laid down, another thing, different from thefe, does, by necelTary 

 ' confequence, follow from what is fo laid down *,' 



This neceflity of the conclufion Is in every fyllogifm, if it be trulv 

 a fyllogifm j that is, if the fyllogiftical form be obferved ; and the 

 form is fo univerfal, that it applies to all kinds of reafoning ; fo that 

 every argument is a fyllogifm, tho* all the propofitlons may not be ex- 

 prefted, but one of them implied or underftood ; which kind of incom- 

 pleat fyllogifm is called an Enthymema^ importing that one of the pro- 

 pofitlons is in the mind of the fpeaker or writer. All ratiocination, there- 

 fore, however various or complex it may feem, if the conclufion be rightly 

 inferred, is refolvable into the fyllogifm ; and, if the conclufion be not 



rightly 



Hi, T« T«t-T« uvui which he thus accurately explains, Aiyco h, t* T«vr« uyxs, to ^,x 



rttvrci a-vuficiinm, ro ^iythyoi t^u6i> /get, jrpocr^jiy jrfoi to yiyier$«c{ to coccyKmcf. ^nalytica. 



Prioraj lib, i. ca^. i. 



