Chap. IV. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 91 



of things that goes through the whole univerfe; and, therefore, I 

 have made it the foundation of uiy dodrine of the fyftem of the 

 univerfe. Now, to know what contains another thing, or is contain- 

 ed in that other thing, is truth or fcience. All our ideas, like every- 

 thing elfe in the univerfe, do, each of them, contain another idea, 

 or are contained in another idea, or both contain and arc contained ; 

 and, as our ideas are all formed from things in the univerfe, it is 

 raoft natural that they fhould have this property, which is common 

 to all things in the univerfe. 



Of our ideas propofitions are formed ; and thefe propofitions are 

 either affirmative or negative. Every affirmative propofition afferts 

 that the praedicate either contains the fubje<fl: or is contained in it*. 

 And this leads to a diftindlion, and a very important diftindtion, of 

 propofitions, which Ariftotle makes f. In fome, he fays, the praedi- 

 cate contains the fiibjeB : And thefe propofitions, according to him, 

 are xa^' 'vto«ij^«vov; as when the ^^«aj- is praedicated oi the /peciesy 

 or the /pedes of any indiv'iduaL In others the praedicate is con- 

 tained in the fubjeB : And thefe he calls '«y 'wTo«e<^e»i&j ; as when 

 any quality or accident is praedicated of the fubjedl to which it be- 

 longs, fuch as, A man is good or bad ; — or when a lefs general 

 Idea is praedicated of a more general, as when man is praedicat- 

 ed of animal \ in which laft cale the praedicate does not contain 

 the fubjedt, nor can contain it, but is contained in it, being a part 

 of it. 



This is the cafe of affirmative propofitions^ As to negative, they 



M 2 affert 



• See vol. V. p. 152. and 153. where I have explained the meaning of the words 

 praedicate ind Jutjecl ; Ihowing that the Praedicate, or j-rfa/^-r /crw as it is called, is 

 what is affirmed or denied of any thing, and that that, of which it is affirmed or de- 

 nied, is the Subjea, or /e/er term; and thefe two are connefted together in the fyliogifm 

 by what is called the tnidd/e term. 



t On this diftindlion fee Vol. I. of this work, p. 383. 



