242 ARISTOTELIAN LOGIC. [CHAP. XV. 



has no just claim, it is therefore undeserving of regard. A sys- 

 tem which has been associated with the very growth of language, 

 which has left its stamp upon the greatest questions and the 

 most famous demonstrations of philosophy, cannot be altogether 

 unworthy of attention. Memory, too, and usage, it must be ad- 

 mitted, have much to do with the intellectual processes ; and 

 there are certain of the canons of the ancient logic which have 

 become almost inwoven in the very texture of thought in cultured 

 minds. But whether the mnemonic forms, in which the particu- 

 lar rules of conversion and syllogism have been exhibited, possess 

 any real utility, whether the very skill which they are supposed 

 to impart might not, with greater advantage to the mental 

 powers, be acquired by the unassisted efforts of a mind left to its 

 own resources, are questions which it might still be not un- 

 profitable to examine. As concerns the particular results de- 

 duced in this chapter, it is to be observed, that they are solely 

 designed to aid the inquiry concerning the nature of the ordinary 

 or scholastic logic, and its relation to a more perfect theory of 

 deductive reasoning. 



