PROPOSITIONS. 89 



differences, like that between affirmation and negation, might 

 be glossed over by considering the incident of time as a mere 

 modification of the predicate : thus, The sun is an object 

 having risen, The sun is an object now rising, The sun is an 

 object to rise hereafter. But the simplification would be merely 

 verbal. Past, present, and future, do not constitute so many 

 different kinds of rising; they are designations belonging to 

 the event asserted, to the sun s rising to-day. They affect, 

 not the predicate, but the applicability of the predicate to the 

 particular subject. That which we affirm to be past, present, 

 or future, is not what the subject signifies, nor what the pre 

 dicate signifies, but specifically and expressly what the pre 

 dication signifies ; what is expressed only by the proposition 

 as such, and not by either or both of the terms. Therefore 

 the circumstance of time is properly considered as attaching 

 to the copula, which is the sign of predication, and not to the 

 predicate. If the same cannot be said of such modifications 

 as these, Caesar may be dead ; Csesar is perhaps dead ; it is 

 possible that Csesar is dead ; it is only because these fall alto 

 gether under another head, being properly assertions not of 

 anything relating to the fact itself, but of the state of our own 

 mind in regard to it ; namely, our absence of disbelief of it. 

 Thus &quot; Csesar may be dead&quot; means &quot; I am not sure that Csesar 

 is alive.&quot; 



3. The next division of propositions is into Simple 

 and Complex. A simple proposition is that in which one 

 predicate is affirmed or denied of one subject. A complex 

 proposition is that in which there is more than one predicate, 

 or more than one subject, or both. 



At first sight this division has the air of an absurdity ; a 

 solemn distinction of things into one and more than one; as 

 if we were to divide horses into single horses and teams of 

 horses. And it is true that what is called a complex propo 

 sition is often not a proposition at all, but several proposi 

 tions, held together by a conjunction. Such, for example, is 

 this : Csesar is dead, and Brutus is alive : or even this, Csesar 

 is dead, but Brutus is alive. There are here two distinct 



