52 DIVISION OF PROPOSITIONS. [CHAP. IV, 



CHAPTER IV. 



OF THE DIVISION OF PROPOSITIONS INTO THE TWO CLASSES OF 

 " PRIMARY" AND " SECONDARY ;" OF THE CHARACTERISTIC PRO- 

 PERTIES OF THOSE CLASSES, AND OF THE LAWS OF THE EXPRES- 

 SION OF PRIMARY PROPOSITIONS. 



1 . r I THE laws of those mental operations which are concerned 

 -**- in the processes of Conception or Imagination having 

 been investigated, and the corresponding laws of the symbols 

 by which they are represented explained, we are led to consider 

 the practical application of the results obtained : first, in the 

 expression of the complex terms of propositions ; secondly, in 

 the expression of propositions ; and lastly, in the construction of 

 a general method of deductive analysis. In the present chapter 

 we shall be chiefly concerned with the first of these objects, as 

 an introduction to which it is necessary to establish the following 

 Proposition : 



PROPOSITION I. 



All logical propositions may be considered as belonging to one 

 or the other of two great classes, to which the respective names of 

 " Primary" or " Concrete Propositions" and " Secondary" or " Ab- 

 stract Propositions" may be given. 



Every assertion that we make may be referred to one or the 

 other of the two following kinds. Either it expresses a relation 

 among things, or it expresses, or is equivalent to the expression of, 

 a relation among propositions. An assertion respecting the pro- 

 perties of things, or the phenomena which they manifest, or the 

 circumstances in which they are placed, is, properly speaking, the 

 assertion of a relation among things. To say that " snow is 

 white," is for the ends of logic equivalent to saying, that " snow 

 is a white thing." An assertion respecting facts or events, their 

 mutual connexion and dependence, is, for the same ends, generally 

 equivalent to the assertion, that such and such propositions con- 



