158 CONDITIONS OF A PERFECT METHOD. [CHAP. X. 



9. It is seen from what precedes that there is one class of 

 propositions to which all the special appliances of the above me- 

 thods of preparation are unnecessary. It is that which is cha- 

 racterized by the following conditions : 



First, That the propositions are of the ordinary kind, implied 

 by the use of the copula is or are, the predicates being particular. 



Secondly, That the terms of the proposition are intelligible 

 without the supposition of any understood relation among the 

 elements which enter into the expression of those terms. 



Thirdly, That the propositions are independent. 



We may, if such speculation is not altogether vain, permit 

 ourselves to conjecture that these are the conditions which would 

 be obeyed in the employment of language as an instrument of 

 expression and of thought, by unerring beings, declaring simply 

 what they mean, without suppression on the one hand, and with- 

 out repetition on the other. Considered both in their relation 

 to the idea of a perfect language, and in their relation to the pro- 

 cesses of an exact method, these conditions are equally worthy 

 of the attention of the student. 



