396 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts , and Letters. 
my thought. Partial truth, in other words, under the title prob¬ 
ability, displaces or reduces that complete truth which is a not 
specially expressed, but certainly incorporated element of what 
is meant by “C exceeds S.” (Conversely “probably not” ex¬ 
hibits partial untruth.) Accordingly I interpret “C probably 
exceeds S” as meaning “I fully believe in the partial truth of 
the conception, C to exceed S.” Whatever be then, in the mind, 
the actual variation of what is called belief, I conclude that, in 
thought prepared for linguistic expression, belief does not vary. 
Or, playing upon a current locution, I would have it that Soft¬ 
ened assertion” is really the hard assertion of softened truth (or 
untruth). That, accordingly, which makes an expression 
assertive, is the presence (in its meaning) of the speaker’s full 
belief—a belief it may be in the truth, the untruth or the partial 
truth of a thought—such truth consisting in the thought’s being- 
paralleled, matched or duplicated, it may be by a phenomenon 
of the external uni verses, it may be even by a phenomenon of the 
speaker’s mind itself—such phenomenon being regarded as ex¬ 
ternal to the thought of the moment.* 
Expression of belief. 
The question by what element of the sentence the belief, or 
say the assertion, is expressed, is of small immediate impor¬ 
tance. The opinion that this element is the personal ending of 
the indicative mode, is obviously inaccurate; for the same sign 
of person, is often used in other modes, without assertive effect. 
On the other hand the “modal vowel,” when it occurs, is doubt¬ 
less distinctive. In its absence, it may be said that whatever in 
actual practice enables the assertive form to be recognized as 
such (e. g., the indicative flectional ending’s difference from 
that of other modes) is the element which expresses assertion. 
So far as my observation reaches, the verb-forms which possess 
such assertive element are ranked as indicative.” Assertion, 
then, or belief (in truth or untruth), is part of the meaning of 
the indicative mode**—indeed, its exclusive privilege; for it is 
*For instance, in “I doubt, fear, desire”, etc., in which assertions the 
mere thought of my doubting is felt to be matched by actual doubt 
itself. 
**That the indicative form is often used without indicative meaning, 
or as a pseudo-indicative (as in “I deny that Brown is honest”, in 
which sentence the “is” cannot assert, as it does in the isolated 
“Brown is honest”), is merely one of many inconsistencies of speech. 
