324 Modality. [CHAP. xm. 



English school was : Positive proof, Violent presumption, 

 Probable presumption, Light or Rash presumption. Though 

 admitted by Blackstone and others, I understand that these 

 divisions are not at all generally accepted at the present 

 day. 



29. In the above we are reminded rather of modal 

 syllogisms. The principal practical form in which the diffi 

 culty underlying the simple modal propositions presents 

 itself, is in the attempt to obtain some criterion of judicial 

 certainty. By certainty here we mean, of course, not what 

 the metaphysicians term apodeictic 1 , for that can seldom or 

 never be secured in practical affairs, but such a degree of 

 conviction, short of this, as every reasonable person will feel 

 to be sufficient for all his wants. Here again, one would 

 think, the quest must appear, to accurate thinkers, an utterly 

 hopeless one ; an effort to discover natural breaks in a con 

 tinuous magnitude. There cannot indeed be the least doubt 

 that, amongst limited classes of keen and practised intellects, 

 a standard of certainty, as of everything else, might be re 

 tained and handed down with considerable accuracy : this is 

 possible in matters of taste and opinion where personal pecu 

 liarities of judgment are far more liable to cause disagreement 

 and confusion. But then such a consensus is almost entirely 

 an affair of tact and custom ; whereas what is wanted in the 

 case in question is some criterion to which the comparatively 

 uninitiated may be able to appeal. The standard, therefore, 

 must not merely be retained by recollection, but be generally 

 recognizable by its characteristics. If such a criterion could 



1 Though this is claimed by some eingestanden. Denn \venn auch alle 



Kantian logicians; Nie darf an Zeugnisse und die iibrigen Anzeigen 



einem angeblichen Verbrecher die wider ihn waren, so bleibt doch das 



gesetzliche Strafe vollzogen werden, Gegentheil immer moglich&quot; (Krug, 



bevor er nicht selbst das Verbrechen Denklehre, 131). 





