4SZ AN TIE NT METAPHYSICS. Book V. 



In tlie preceding chapters, I explained the different kinds of 

 reafoning, fuch as the Jcientifical or danoyiflrativcy the analytical^ 

 the diale^icaU and the indii^ive. But there is one kind ot rea- 

 Ibning, and which is of daily ufe, that I have not yet mentioned, 

 viz. the reafomtig from examples ; by which I prove, that, becaufe 

 fuch a thing happened in fuch and fuch circumftances, the fame 

 thing will happen in like circumflances. That this reafoning is not 

 demonftrative, is evident. But, in order more clearly to under- 

 hand the nature of it, we muft have recourfe to a divifion of rea- 

 foning made by the philofophers of the Peripatetic School. All 

 reafoning, they faid, is either from greater to lefs, from lefs to greater, 

 or from equal to equal '*. From greater to lefs^ that is, from generals 

 to particulars^ is the demonftrative reafoning, if the premiflfes be felf- 

 evident propofitions, or demonftrated truths : If not, the reafoning is 

 only of the dialedical kind. From lefs to greater^ that is, from parti' 

 culars to generals y is reafoning by induflion. And from equal to equals 

 that is, from one particular to another that is like it, is reafoning from 

 examples. And, befides thefe, there is no other method of reafoning ; 

 for the analytical is rather a method of inveftigation than reafoning : 

 Or, if it is to be accounted reafoning, it is of the indudive kind, pro- 

 ceeding from confequences to principles, that is, from particulars to 

 generals^ 



CHAP. 



• See Philoponws's Commentary on the firfl book of AriftotIe*s Firfi /Analytics, 

 fol- 10. 



