FUNCTIONS AND VALUE OF THE SYLLOGISM. 259 



4. From the considerations now adduced, the 

 following conclusions seem to be established : All 

 inference is from particulars to particulars : General 

 propositions are merely registers of such inferences 

 already made, and short formulae for making more : 

 The major premiss of a syllogism, consequently, is a 

 formula of this description : and the conclusion is not 

 an inference drawn from the formula, but an inference 

 drawn according to the formula : the real logical 

 antecedent, or premisses, being the particular facts 

 from whicli the general proposition was collected by 

 induction. Those facts, and the individual instances 

 which supplied them, may have been forgotten ; but 

 a record remains, not indeed descriptive of the facts 

 themselves, but showing how those cases may be 

 distinguished respecting which the facts, when 

 known, were considered to warrant a given inference. 

 According to the indications of this record, we draw 

 our conclusion ; which is, to all intents and purposes, 

 a conclusion from the forgotten facts. For this it is 

 essential that we should read the record correctly: 

 and the rules of the syllogism are a set of precautions 

 to ensure our doing so. 



This view of the functions of the syllogism is 

 confirmed by the consideration of precisely those 

 cases which might be expected to be least favourable 

 to it, namely, those in which ratiocination is inde- 

 pendent of any previous induction. We have already 

 observed that the syllogism, in the ordinary course of 

 our reasoning, is only the latter half of the process 

 of travelling from premisses to a conclusion. There 

 are, however, some peculiar cases in which it is the 

 whole process. Particulars alone are capable of being 

 subjected to observation ; and all knowledge which is 

 derived from observation, begins, therefore, of neces- 



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