56 NAMES AND PROPOSITIONS. 



together with a fourth ; " between the two preceding propositions 

 there exists a contrast :" viz., either between the two facts themselves, 

 or between the feehngs with which it is my wish that they should be 

 regarded. 



In the instances cited<Hhe two propositions are kept visibly distinct, 

 each subject having its separate predicate, and each predicate its sepa- 

 rate subject. For brevity, however, and to avoid repetition, the pro- 

 positions are often blended together : as in this, " Peter and James 

 preached at Jerusalem and in Galilee," which contains four propo- 

 sitions : Peter preached at JeiTisalem, Peter preached in Galilee, 

 James preached at Jerusalem, James preached in Galilee. 



We have seen that when the two or more propositions comprising 

 what is called a complex proposition, are stated absolutely, and not 

 under any condition or proviso, it is not a proposition at all, but a plu- 

 rality of pi'opositions ; since what it expresses is not a single assertion, 

 but several assertions, which, if true when joined, are true also when 

 separated. But there is a kind of proposition which, although it con- 

 tains a plurality of subjects and of predicates, and may be said in one 

 sense of the word to consist of several propositions, contains but one 

 assertion ; and its truth does not at all imply that of the simple propo- 

 sitions which compose it. An example of this is, when the simple 

 propositions are connected by the particle or ; as, either A is B or C 

 is D ; or by the particle if; as A is B //"C is D. In the former case, 

 the proposition is called disjmictive, in the latter conditional : the name 

 liypothctical was originally common to both. As has been well 

 remarked by Archbishop Whately and others, the disjunctive form is 

 resolvable into the conditional; every disjunctive proposition being 

 equivalent to two or more conditional ones. " Either A is B or C is 

 D," means, " if A is not B, C is D ; and if C is not D, A is B." All 

 hyjiothetical propositions, therefore, though (disjunctive in fonn, are 

 conditional in meaning ; and the words hypothetical and conditional 

 may be, as indeed they generally are, used synonymously. Propo- 

 sitions in which the assertion is not dependent upon a condition, are 

 said, in the language of logicians, to be categorical. 



An hypothetical proposition is not, hke the pretended complex pro- 

 positions which we previously considered, a mere aggi'egation of 

 simple propositions. The simple propositions which form part of the 

 words in which it is couched, form no part of the assertion which it 

 conveys. When we say. If the Koran comes fi-om God, Mahomet is 

 the prophet of God, we do not intend to affirm either that the Koran 

 does come from God, or that Mahomet is really his prophet. Neither 

 of these simple propositions may be true, and yet the truth of the 

 hypothetical proposition may be indisputable. "WHiat is asserted is 

 not the truth of either of the propositions, but the inferribility of the 

 one from the other. Wliat, then, is the subject, and what the predi- 

 cate of the hypothetical proposition % " The Koran " is not the subject 

 of it, nor is " Mahomet :" for nothing is affirmed or denied either of 

 the Koran or of Mahomet. The real subject of the predication is the 

 entire proposition, " Mahomet is the prophet of God;" and the affirm- 

 ation is, that this is a legitimate inference from the proposition, " The 

 Koran comes from God." The subject and predicate, therefore, of an 

 hypothetical proposition are names of propositions. The subject is 

 some one proposition. The predicate is a general relative name 



