If the sun be fixed, the earth must move. Rehoboam was unhappy, because he followed evil counsel. As is the Father, so is the Son. The first is given as an example of a conditional, the second, of a causal, and the third, of a relative proposition. But no one of them can with any propriety, be considered as a compound proposition. Each example consists of two entire propositions, possessing distinct subjects, copulas, and predicates; and so put together as to constitute a complete act of ratiocination.* * Collard, Logick, part iii. ch. 2. Kirwan, Logick, part i. ch. 4. Watts, Logick, part ii. ch. 2. PART THIRD. OF JUDGMENT AND REASONING. CHAPTER FIRST. INTUITIVE EVIDENCE. 81. Judgment is an act of the mind, uniting or separating two objects of thought according as they are perceived to agree or disagree. The relation between these objects is sometimes discovered by barely contemplating them, without reference to any thing else; and sometimes by comparing them with other objects, to which they have a known relation. The former is simple comparison; the latter is an act of reasoning. The determination of the mind in both cases is denominated judgment. Every act of judgment is grounded on some sort of evidence. That, which determines the mind in simple comparison, is called intuitive evidence; and that, which is employed in reasoning, deductive. The principal kinds of intuitive evidence, or sources of intuitive belief, are the evidence of sense, of consciousness, of memory, and of axioms, or general principles. 82. The first source of intuitive belief is the testimony of the external senses, hearing, seeing, touching, smelling, and tasting. These organs come to their usual degree of maturity in infancy, and are employed with equal confidence by all descriptions of people. Men have, in every country, and in every period of the world, been governed by their testimony, even in their most important concerns. We can no more question the existence of the bodies, which we see and handle, than we can our own existence, or the truth of the most obvious maxim, that can be proposed to our thoughts. On the evidence of the senses is grounded all our knowledge of the nature, powers, and qualities of the material objects around us. All truths relative to physical science or to the events of history, and all those rules of prudence, which relate to the preservation and health of our bodies, must ultimately be resolved into this principle, that things are as our senses represent them. 83. Consciousness is another source of intuitive evidence. Its office is to inform us of the present existence of our various passions, affections, and mental operations. The whole science of the human mind is built on this evidence; and no branch of knowledge stands on a surer foundation; for no evidence is superior to this, where it is completely ascertained. But it is sometimes difficult to define precisely the subjects of our consciousness. Those, who lave not been accustomed to attend to their intellectual operations, are liable to err in applying this evidence. I think, compare, reason, doubt; I feel pain, or pleasure; I remember past events. These are facts, of which I am conscious, and of which I am unable to question the reality. The power of consciousness is exercised but imperfectly, till the mind advances towards maturity. Some* have supposed it to be wholly dormant during the years of childhood. It is however exercised, in a greater or less degree, by people of all classes; and the subjects, about which it is employed, can be no other than the mental states of a being, which each one calls himself. * Scott, Intellectual Philosophy. This 84. As the evidence of sense furnishes us with the knowledge of things present in the material world, and the evidence of consciousness informs us of whatever is passing in our own minds; so the evidence of memory gives us immediate knowledge of things past, whether of a material or intellectual kind. This evidence has ever commanded the belief of mankind as effectually as that of sense. Past facts and occurrences, of which we have a clear remembrance, are regarded as certain. is implied by men in all their efforts to gather knowledge and improvement from their past experience. It is on this principle, that causes, which involve the lives and fortunes of men, are decided by the testimony of witnesses, in courts of justice. Propositions, formerly proved, may be relied on as present knowledge, though the reasons, which first gained our assent to them, be now forgotten, provided we remember that we once carefully investigated them, and were then certain of their truth. Such propositions must often be introduced or referred to in demonstrations; and, should doubts be entertained respecting their truth, they must weaken our confidence in the con 1 |