47^ ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book V. 



But the queftion is, in what fenfe one idea can be faid to be part of 

 another ? And this is a queftion of very great importance, as, with- 

 out being able to anfwer it, we cannot give any rational account of the 

 evidence of the fyilogifm, nor, indeed, of any other kind of reafoning, 

 which, as I have faid, is all reducible to fyilogifm. 



One anfwer to this queftion is obvious enough, namely, that the 

 more general idea, which contains the lefs general, as a part of it, is 

 the genus ; and the lefs general, fo contained, is the fpecies ; for it is 

 only, when ideas have that relation to one another, that the one can 

 be faid to contain the other as a part. This will be evident, if we 

 conhder that, when one idea thus contains another> it is always prae- 

 dicated of that other. Thus, the idea of animal^ which contaiub the 

 idea of man^ is praedicated o^ man^ and we fay, Man is an anhnal'^. 

 Now, as I had occafion to obferve before t» one idea can be praedicated 

 of another only in two refpe(fl:s, either -ds genus and jpcfcies, or as acci- 

 detit and Jiihjiance. Now, though the accident can be praedicated of 

 the fubftance, it is only praedicated of it as inherent in it, n t as con- 

 taining it; or, as Ariftotle expreiTes it, it is »» vV«e<;«i»4., not «««' ^ a-e^tsi^eviv; 

 for it is impoffible that we can fay, that the colour ivhite^ for exam- 

 ple, which we praedicate of man^ or any other animal, can be iaid to 

 contain that animal. It remains, therefore, that it is only when the 

 genus is praedicated of the fpecies, that the one idea can be faid to 

 contain the other as a part of it. 



But here the queftion recurs. In what fenfe the fpecies can be faid to 

 be part of the genus ? It is not, as one piece of matter is part of an- 

 other, 



* The genius of ourlanguage will not admit fuch propofitions to be exprefled in a 

 more natural way, by putting the praedicate, which is the greater term, firft, as in 

 Greek, i^<w«v tc^n « «v«j6,xe? ; or, to exprcfs it in Ariflotle's logical language, !««» xxnc 

 Ttv «»<i§«5r«'j ; by which any ambiguity that may aiile from the ufe of the fubftantive 

 verb ia-Tt is removed. 



tp.383- 



