RATIOCINATION, OK SYLLOGISM. 121 



tribute lias a certain other attribute. Under the other aspect, it is to 

 be regarded not as a part of our knowledge, but as an aid tor our prac- 

 tical exigencies, by enabling us when we see or learn that an object 

 possesses one of the two attributes, to infer that it possesses the other; 

 thus employing the first attribute as a mcUfk or evidence of the second. 

 Thus regarded, every syllogism comes within the following general 

 formula : — 



Attribute A is a mark of attribute B, 



A given object Ims the mark A, 

 therefore 



The given object has the attribute B. 

 RefeiTed to this type, the ai'guments which we have lately cited as 

 specimens of the syllogism, will express themselves in the following 

 manner : — 



The attributes of man are a mark of the attribute mortality, 



Socrates has the attributes of man, 

 therefore 



Socrates has the attribute mortahty. 

 And again, 



The attributes of man are a mark of the attribute mortality. 



The attributes of a king are a mark of the attributes of man, 

 therefore 



The attributes of a king are a mark of the attribute mortality. 

 And lastly. 



The attributes of man are a mark of the absence of the attributes 

 of a god. 



The attributes of a king are a mark of the attributes of man, 

 therefore 



The attributes of a king are a mark of the absence of the attributes 

 signified by the word god : 



(or, are evidence of the absence of those attributes). 

 To correspond with this alteration in the form of the syllogisms, the 

 axioms on which the syllogistic process is founded must undergo a 

 corresponding transformation. In this altered phraseology, both those 

 axioms may be brought under one general expression ; namely, that 

 whatever possesses any mark, possesses that which it is a mark of. 

 Or, when the minor premiss as well as the major is universal, we may 

 state it thus : whatever is a mark of any mark, is a mark of that which 

 this last is a mark of. To trace the identity of these axioms with those 

 previously laid down, may be safely left to the intelligent reader. We 

 shall find, as we proceed, the great convenience of the phraseology 

 into which we have last thrown them, and which is better adapted than 

 any I am acquainted with, to express with precision and force what is 

 aimed at, and actually accomplished, in every case of the ascertain- 

 ment of a truth by ratiocination. 



