RATIOCINATION, OR SYLLOGISM. 201 



cited as specimens of the syllogism, will express themselves in 

 the following manner : 



The attributes of man are a mark of the attribute mortality, 

 Socrates has the attributes of man, 



therefore 



Socrates has the attribute mortality. 

 And again, 



The attributes of man are a mark of the attribute mortality, 

 The attributes of a king are a mark of the attributes of man, 



therefore 

 The attributes of a king are a mark of the attribute mortality. 



And, lastly, 

 The attributes of man are a mark of the absence of the 



attribute omnipotence, 

 The attributes of a king are a mark of the attributes of man, 



therefore 

 The attributes of a king are a mark of the absence of the 



attribute signified by the word omnipotent 

 (or, are evidence of the absence of that attribute). 

 To correspond witb this alteration in the form of the 

 syllogisms, the axioms on which the syllogistic process is 

 founded must undergo a corresponding transformation. In 

 this altered phraseology, both those axioms may be brought 

 under one general expression ; namely, that whatever has any 

 mark, has that which it is a mark of. Or, when the minor 

 premise as well as the major is universal, we may state it 

 thus : Whatever is a mark of any mark, is a mark of that 

 which this last is a mark of. To trace the identity of these 

 axioms with those previously laid down, may be left to the 

 intelligent reader. We shall find, as we proceed, the great 

 convenience of the phraseology into which we have last thrown 

 them, and which is better adapted than any I am acquainted 

 with, to express with precision and force what is aimed at, and 

 actually accomplished, in every case of the ascertainment of 

 a truth by ratiocination. 



