NECESSITY OP AN ANALYSIS OF NAMES. 19 



To know the import of all possible propositions, would "be to 

 know all questions which can be raised, all matters which are 

 susceptible of being either believed or disbelieved. How many 

 kinds of inquiries can be propounded ; how many kinds of 

 judgments can be made; and how many kinds of propositions 

 it is possible to frame with a meaning ; are but different forms 

 of one and the same question. Since, then, the objects of all 

 Belief and of all Inquiry express themselves in propositions ; 

 a sufficient scrutiny of Propositions and of their varieties will 

 apprize us what questions mankind have actually asked of 

 themselves, and what, in the nature of answers to those 

 questions, they have actually thought they had grounds to 

 believe. 



Now the first glance at a proposition shows that it is 

 formed by putting together two names. A proposition, ac- 

 cording to the common simple definition, which is sufficient 

 for our purpose, is, discourse, in which something is affirmed 

 or denied of something. Thus, in the proposition, Gold is 

 yellow, the quality yellow is affirmed of the substance gold. 

 In the proposition, Franklin was not born in England, the 

 fact expressed by the words born in England is denied of the 

 man Franklin. 



Every proposition consists of three parts: the Subject, the 

 Predicate, and the Copula. The predicate is the name denoting 

 that which is affirmed or denied. The subject is the name 

 denoting the person or thing which something is affirmed or 

 denied of. The copula is the sign denoting that there is an 

 affirmation or denial; and thereby enabling the hearer or 

 reader to distinguish a proposition from any other kind of 

 discourse. Thus, in the proposition, The earth is round, the 

 Predicate is the word round, which denotes the quality affirmed, 

 or (as the phrase is) predicated : the earth, words denoting the 

 object which that quality is affirmed of, compose the Subject ; 

 the word is, which serves as the connecting mark between the 

 subject and predicate, to show that one of them is affirmed of 

 the other, is called the Copula. 



Dismissing, for the present, the copula, of which more will 

 be said hereafter, every proposition, then, consists of at least 



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