18 NAMES AND PROPOSITIONS. 



pupil to put away the glasses which distort the object, and to 

 use those which are adapted to his purpose in such a manner 

 as to assist, not perplex, his vision ; he would not be in a con- 

 dition to practise the remaining part of their discipline with 

 any prospect of advantage. Therefore it is that an inquiry 

 into language, so far as is needful to guard against the errors 

 to which it gives rise, has at all times been deemed a necessary 

 preliminary to the study of logic. 



But there is another reason, of a still more fundamental 

 nature, why the import of words should be the earliest subject 

 of the logician's consideration : because without it he cannot 

 examine into the import of Propositions. Now this is a 

 subject which stands on the very threshold of the science of 

 logic. 



The object of logic, as defined in the Introductory Chapter, 

 is to ascertain how we come by that portion of our knowledge 

 (much the greatest portion) which is not intuitive : and by 

 what criterion we can, in matters not self-evident, distinguish 

 between things proved and things not proved, between what 

 is worthy and what is unworthy of belief. Of the various 

 questions which present themselves to our inquiring faculties, 

 some receive an answer from direct consciousness, others, if 

 resolved at all, can only be resolved by means of evidence. 

 Logic is concerned with these last. But before inquiring into 

 the mode of resolving questions, it is necessary to inquire what 

 are those which offer themselves ; what questions are conceiv- 

 able ; what inquiries are there, to which mankind have either 

 obtained, or been able to imagine it possible that they should 

 obtain, an answer. This point is best ascertained by a survey 

 and analysis of Propositions. 



2. The answer to every question which it is possible to 

 frame, must be contained in a Proposition, or Assertion. 

 Whatever can be an object of belief, or even of disbelief, must, 

 when put into words, assume the form of a proposition. All 

 truth and all error lie in propositions. What, by a convenient 

 misapplication of an abstract term, we call a Truth, means 

 simply a True Proposition ; and errors are false propositions. 



