360 MIND IN EVOLUTION CHAP. 



syllogistic process in varying degree of explicitness. In the 

 first stage we saw that what corresponds to the major premiss 

 is a certain formed disposition, what corresponds to the 

 minor, a stimulus, what corresponds to the conclusion, a 

 response. The premisses in this case are antecedent con- 

 ditions from which the response follows, but there is no 

 evidence that either of them is grasped in relation to the 

 response or its results. In the second stage we held that 

 the starting point is a complex of related percepts as of 

 action and consequence an " observed particular," and the 

 result a judgment equivalent to the combination of minor 

 premiss and conclusion, the major being still represented 

 only by the mental habit which predisposes towards the 

 combination. In the third stage the major premiss itself 

 becomes explicit and the syllogism complete. We have 

 the universal judgment, the particular, and their combination 

 in the conclusion. I do not mean that ordinary reasonings 

 are cast in syllogistic form, but that each of the three (or 

 including antecedent experience four) phases which are 

 formulated in syllogism is now a distinct mental content, 

 a distinct judgment. All along there were general 

 qualities and universal relations contained in the world of 

 experience. All along these guided the mind whether in 

 action or in the formation of judgments. Now they not 

 merely guide the mind, but are apprehended by the mind, 

 and they become in their turn units or terms which can 

 enter into higher combinations as the order of experience 

 and the laws of thought may determine. So far, then, 

 the apprehension of the Universal appears as a turning 

 round of the mind upon its previous operations ; a bring- 

 ing into clear consciousness of what it was doing before. 



(^) But the Universal has another aspect. It sums up 

 in itself the results of a set of experiences when compared 

 and analysed ; and it refers to a whole class of facts, of 

 experiences actual or potential. Thus to reason in 

 Universals is to bring classes of facts into relation with one 

 another. Experiences already correlated by the affinities 

 which have led us to class them together become for us 

 now a unit which may be correlated with any other units 

 similarly constituted ; and this correlation may reach any 



