92 NAMES AND PROPOSITIONS. 



is here afforded of the remark, that particles are abbrevia- 

 tions ; since " If A is B, C is D," is found to be an abbre- 

 viation of the following : " The proposition C is D, is a legiti- 

 mate inference from the proposition A is B." 



The distinction, therefore, between hypothetical and cate- 

 gorical propositions, is not so great as it at first appears. In 

 the conditional, as well as in the categorical form, one predi- 

 cate is affirmed of one subject, and no more : but a conditional 

 proposition is a proposition concerning a proposition ; the 

 subject of the assertion is itself an assertion. Nor is this a 

 property peculiar to hypothetical propositions. There are 

 other classes of assertions concerning propositions. Like other 

 things, a proposition has attributes which may be predicated 

 of it. The attribute predicated of it in an hypothetical pro- 

 position, is that of being an inference from a certain other 

 proposition. But this is only one of many attributes that 

 might be predicated. We may say, That the whole is greater 

 than its part, is an axiom in mathematics : That the Holy 

 Ghost proceeds from the Father alone, is a tenet of the Greek 

 Church : The doctrine of the divine right of kings was 

 renounced by Parliament at the Kevolution : The infallibility 

 of the Pope has no countenance from Scripture. In all these 

 cases the subject of the predication is an entire proposition. 

 That which these different predicates are affirmed of, is the 

 proposition, "the whole is greater than its part;" the proposi- 

 tion, " the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father alone ;" the 

 proposition, " kings have a divine right ;" the proposition, " the 

 Pope is infallible." 



Seeing, then, that there is much less difference between 

 hypothetical propositions and any others, than one might be 

 led to imagine from their form, we should be at a loss to 

 account for the conspicuous position which they have been 

 selected to fill in treatises on logic, if we did not remember 

 that what they predicate of a proposition, namely, its being 

 an inference from something else, is precisely that one of its 

 attributes with which most of all a logician is concerned. 



