PROPOSITIONS. 109 



Caesar is dead, and Brutus is alive : or even this, 

 Caesar is dead, but Brutus is alive. There are here 

 two distinct assertions ; and we might as well call a 

 street a complex house, as these two propositions a 

 complex proposition. It is true that the syncategore- 

 matic words and and but have a meaning; but that 

 meaning is so far from making the two propositions 

 one, that it adds a third proposition to them. All 

 particles are abbreviations, and generally abbreviations 

 of propositions ; a kind of short-hand, whereby that 

 which, to be expressed fully, would have required a 

 proposition or a series of propositions, is suggested to 

 the mind at once. Thus the words, Caesar is dead 

 and Brutus is alive, are equivalent to these : Caesar is 

 dead ; Brutus is alive ; it is my wish that the two pre- 

 ceding propositions should be thought of together. If 

 the words were, Caesar is dead but Brutus is alive, the 

 sense would be equivalent to the same three propo- 

 sitions together with a fourth; " between the two 

 preceding propositions there exists a contrast :" viz., 

 either between the two facts themselves, or between 

 the feelings with which it is my wish that they should 

 be regarded. 



In the instances cited, the two propositions are 

 kept visibly distinct, each subject having its separate 

 predicate, and each predicate its separate subject. 

 For brevity, however, and to avoid repetition, the pro- 

 positions are often blended together : as in this, 

 " Peter and James pre'ached at Jerusalem and in Gali- 

 lee, "-which contains four propositions : Peter preached 

 at Jerusalem, Peter preached in Galilee, James 

 preached at Jerusalem, James preached in Galilee. 



We have seen that when the two or more propo- 

 sitions comprising what is called a complex propo- 

 sition, are stated absolutely, and not under any 



