MEDIATE INFERENCE. 349 



respect, we compare one of them with a measure, sample 

 of colour, &c., and then convey the measure or sample to 

 e other, and compare it with that one, or we compare 

 the idea of one object with that of the other, by means of 

 our memory. 



' Mediate inference is that act of pure thought whereby 

 the two judgments, which are its premises, are collected 

 and summed up into one in the conclusion.' 1 The two 

 propositions or judgments, from which the conclusion is to 

 be drawn, each consist of two terms, and the two ideas or 

 terms to be compared are contained in these propositions. 

 One of these propositions is called the major premise, and 

 the other the minor premise ; and in a syllogism the 

 former ought to be placed the first, but in ordinary rea- 

 soning it usually is not. One of the terms contained in 

 the major premise is called the 'major term,' and one of 

 those in the minor premise is called the ' minor term.' 

 The major term is always the predicate, and the minor 

 term the subject of the conclusion, because in a universal 

 affirmative proposition the predicate necessarily includes 

 the subject. The other two terms, viz. one in each pre- 

 mise, are collectively called the f middle term,' because it 

 joins the two propositions together, and it may always be 

 known by the fact that it does not appear in the con- 

 clusion. The major premise, therefore, contains the major 

 and middle terms, the minor premise contains the minor 

 and middle terms, and the conclusion contains the major 

 and minor terms only. It often requires laborious re- 

 searches, numerous observations, and long trains of thought 

 in order to find a middle term between two other ones, i.e. 

 to find some particular circumstance in which two objects 

 or phenomena agree. 



In syllogistic or mediate inference, we compare the 

 1 Bo wen's Logic, p. 179. 



