272 REASONING. 



having satisfied himself that all men possess that 

 attribute : so that whatever the idea contains, in any 

 person's mind, beyond what is included in the con- 

 ventional signification of the word, has been added to 

 it as the result of assent to a proposition ; while Dr. 

 Brown's theory requires us to suppose, on the con- 

 trary, that assent to the proposition is produced by 

 evolving, through an analytic process, this very ele- 

 ment out of the idea. This theory, therefore, may 

 be considered as sufficiently refuted, and the minor 

 premiss must be regarded as totally insufficient to 

 prove the conclusion, except with the assistance of 

 the major, or of that which the major represents, 

 namely, the various singular propositions expressive 

 of the series of observations, of which the generaliza- 

 tion called the major premiss is the result. 



In the argument, then, which proves that So- 

 crates is mortal, one indispensable part of the premisses 

 will be as follows: "My father, and my father's 

 father, A, B, C, and an indefinite number of other 

 persons, were mortal ;" which is only an expression 

 in different words of the observed fact that they have 

 died. This is the major premiss, divested of the 

 petitio principii, and cut down to as much as is really 

 known by direct evidence. 



In order to connect this proposition with the con- 

 clusion, Socrates is mortal, the additional link neces- 

 sary is such a proposition as the following : " Socrates 

 resembles my father, and my father's father, and the 

 other individuals specified." This proposition we 

 assert when we say that Socrates is a man. By 

 saying so we likewise assert in what respect he 

 resembles them, namely, in the attributes connoted by 

 the word man. And from this we conclude that he 

 further resembles them in the attribute mortality. 



