PROPOSITIONS. 55 



and tends to obsciire the subject, by treating the difference between 

 two kinds of truths as if it were only a difference between two kinds of 

 words. To put things together, and to put tlieni or keep them asunder, 

 will remain different operations, whatever tricks we may play with 

 language. ♦*--.- 



remark of a similar nature may be apjilied to most of those dis- 

 tinctions among propositions which are said to have reference to their 

 modality : as, difference of tense or time ; the sun did rise, the sun is 

 rising, the sun will rise. All these differences, like that between affinn- 

 ation and negation, might be glossed over by considering the incident 

 of time as a mere modification of the predicate : thus, The sun is an 

 object having risen. The sun is an uhjcct now rising, The sun is an object 

 to rise kcrea/fcr. But the simplification would be merely verbal. Past, 

 present, or future, do not constitute so many different kinds of rising ; 

 they are designations belonging to the event asserted, to the sun's rising 

 to-day. They affect, not the predicate, but the applicability of the 

 predicate to the particular subject. That which w^e affirm to be past, 

 present, or future, is not what the subject signifies, nor what the pre- 

 dicate signifies, but specifically and expressly what the predication 

 signifies ; what is expressed only by the proposition, as such, and not 

 by either or both of the terms. Therefore the circumstance of time is 

 properly considered as attaching to the copida, which is the sign of 

 predication, and not to the predicate. If the same cannot be said of 

 such modifications as these, Caesar may be dead ; Csesar is perhajJS 

 dead ; It is j^ossihle that Ca?sar is dead ; it is only because these fall 

 altogether under another head, being properly assertions not of any- 

 thing relating to the fact itself, but of the state of our own mind in 

 regard to it; namely, our absence of disbelief of it. Thus, "Caesar 

 may be dead " means " I am not sure that Caesar is alive." 



§ 3. The next division of propositions is into Simple and Complex. 

 A simple proposition is that in which one predicate is affirmed or 

 denied of one subject. A complex proposition is that in which there 

 is more than one predicate, or more than one subject, or both. 



At first sight this decision has the air of an absurdity; a solemn dis- 

 tinction of things into one and more than one ; as if we were to divide 

 horses into single horses and teams of horses. And it is true that what 

 is called a complex proposition is often not a proposition at all, but 

 several propositions, held together by a conjunction. Such, for exam- 

 ple, is this, Caesar is dead, and Brutus is alive : or even this, Caesar is 

 dead, hut Brutus is alive. There are here two distinct assertions ; and 

 we might as well call a street a complex house, as these two propo- 

 sitions a complex proposition. It is true that the syncategorematic 

 words and and but have a meaning, but that meaning is so far from 

 making the two propositions one^ that it adds a third j)roposition to 

 them. All particles are abbreviations, and generally abbreviations of 

 propositions ; a kind of short-hand, whereby that which, to be expressed 

 fully, would have required a proposition or a series of propositions, is 

 suggested to the mind at once. Thus the words, Caesar is dead and 

 Brutus is alive, are equivalent to these: Caisar is dead; Brutus is 

 alive ; it is my wish that the two preceding propositions should be 

 thought of together. If the words were, Caesar is dead hut Bi-utus is 

 alive, the sense would be equivalent to the same three propositions 



