232 REASONING. 



the example of Aristidss; a syllogism in the third 

 figure, 



Aristides was virtuous, 

 Aristides was a pagan, 



therefore 

 Some pagan was virtuous, 



would be a more natural mode of stating the argu- 

 ment, and would carry conviction more instantly 

 home, than the same ratiocination strained into the 

 first figure, thus 



Aristides was virtuous, 

 Some pagan was Aristides, 



therefore 

 Some pagan was virtuous. 



A German philosopher, Lambert, whose Neues 

 Organon (published in the year 1 764) contains among 

 other things the most elaborate and complete expo- 

 sition of the syllogistic doctrine which I have hap- 

 pened to meet with, has expressly examined what 

 sorts of arguments fall most naturally and suitably 

 into each of the four figures ; and his solution is 

 characterized by great ingenuity and clearness of 

 thought*. The argument, however, is one and the 



* His conclusions are, " The first figure is suited to the dis- 

 covery or proof of the properties of a thing ; the second to the 

 discovery or proof of the distinctions between things ; the third to 

 the discovery or proof of instances and exceptions ; the fourth to 

 the discovery, or exclusion, of the different species of a genus." 

 The reference of syllogisms in the last three figures to the dictum 

 de omni et nullo is, in Lambert's view, strained and unnatural : to 

 each of the three belongs, according to him, a separate axiom, co-or- 

 dinate and of equal authority with that dictum, and to which he 

 gives the names of dictum de dwerso for the second figure, dictum de 



