448 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts , and- Letters. 
and invite you to name the one believed by you. This indeed 
I can easily do by means of interrogative words of the type 
already considered, propounding such a question as “Which of 
the two, the truth or the untruth of Brown’s being honest, do 
you believe?,” or “Whether of the two, that Btrown he honest, or 
that Brown be not honest, do you believe ?” Indeed, when both 
• alternatives are somewhat equally distinct in consciousness, such 
forms of speech are actually employed, being known as double 
questions. These moreover often are reduced by ellipsis, serv¬ 
ing thus as virtual questions of the single type.* They may 
however be neglected, as introducing no principle new to the 
interrogative syntax examined in Chap. III. 
(2) It may be on the other hand that, having formed a mental 
picture, and contemplated its possible truth, and untruth, I feel a 
propension toward the one or the other—say the truth. This 
propension—strong enough perhaps to give promise of becoming 
full belief—may so preoccupy me, that I quite neglect the al¬ 
ternative untruth, letting it slip from my attention. It may 
however happen, that the promise fails to be fulfilled—that my 
propension does not grow into belief. In that event I am 
brought again to a mental stand-still, but somewhat later than in 
the former case; in other words, the mental structure which I 
have begun, though uncompleted, has reached a stage more near 
completion. As in case (1), so also in this case, I have failed— 
but with this difference: in the former case my failure was 
consciously double; in this case it is consciously single. That is, 
I am aware of failing to believe only a mental picture’s truth. 
If now you are to help' me, you must do better than I have 
done. By dint of greater mental power, or greater knowledge, 
you may perhaps succeed where I have failed—that is, in be¬ 
lieving truth. But on the other hand it may be that you cannot 
succeed,, except in what I did not try—that is, in believing un¬ 
truth, or else in disbelieving. To give you all the chances of 
succeeding, I must reopen choice, either between believing truth 
and believing untruth, or else between believing and disbeliev- 
ing. 
That I do not do the former, is indicated by the coexistence 
of the question forms “Is Brown honest?” and “Isn’t Brown 
honest?,” in one of which Brown’s being honest is put in the 
* Compare the Latin “(utrum)—an,” and the German tc ob— (Oder),” 
etc. 
