FUNCTIONS AND VALUE OF THE SYLLOGISM. 273 



7. We have thus obtained what we were seeking, 

 an universal type of the reasoning process. We find 

 it resolvable in all cases into the following elements : 

 Certain individuals have a given attribute ; an indi- 

 vidual or individuals resemble the former in certain 

 other attributes ; therefore they resemble them also in 

 the given attribute. This type of ratiocination does 

 not claim, like the syllogism, to be conclusive from the 

 mere form of the expression ; nor can it possibly be 

 so. That one proposition does or does not assert the 

 very fact which was already asserted in another, may 

 appear from the form of the expression, that is, from 

 a comparison of the language ; but when the two 

 propositions assert facts which are bond fide different, 

 whether the one fact proves the other or not can never 

 appear from the language, but must depend upon 

 other considerations. Whether, from the attributes in 

 which Socrates resembles those men who have hereto- 

 fore died, it is allowable to infer that he resembles 

 them also in being mortal, is a question of Induction ; 

 and is to be decided by the principles or canons which 

 we shall hereafter recognise as tests of the correct 

 performance of that great mental operation. 



Meanwhile, however, it is certain, as before re- 

 marked, that if this inference can be drawn as to 

 Socrates, it can be drawn as to all others who 

 resemble the observed individuals in the same attri- 

 butes in which he resembles them ; that is (to express 

 the thing concisely), of all men. If, therefore, the 

 argument be conclusive in the case of Socrates, we 

 are at liberty, once for all, to treat the possession of 

 the attributes of man as a mark, or satisfactory evi- 

 dence, of the attribute of mortality. This we do by 

 laying down the universal proposition, All men are 

 mortal, and interpreting this, as occasion arises, in 



VOL. j. T 



