giving the relations between the
two Extremes and the Middle, are named on an equally simple ground.

One of them gives the relation between the Minor Term, S, and the
Middle, M. S, All or Some, is or is not in M. This is called the Minor
Premiss.

The other gives the relation between the Major Term and the Middle. M,
All or Some, is or is not in P. This is called the Major Premiss.[2]

[Footnote 1: Aristotle calls the Major the First ([Greek:
to proton]) and the Minor the last ([Greek: to eschaton]),
probably because that was their order in the conclusion when
stated in his most usual form, "P is predicated of S," or "P
belongs to S".]

[Footnote 2: When we speak of the Minor or the Major simply,
the reference is to the terms. To avoid a confusion into
which beginners are apt to stumble, and at the same time to
emphasise the origin of the names, the Premisses might be
spoken of at first as the Minor's Premiss and the Major's
Premiss. It was only in the Middle Ages when the origin of
the Syllogism had been forgotten, that the idea arose that the
terms were called Major and Minor because they occurred in the
Major and the Minor Premiss respectively.]

CHAPTER II.

FIGURES AND MOODS OF THE SYLLOGISM.

I.--The First Figure.

The forms (technically called MOODS, _i.e._, modes) of the First
Figure are founded on the simplest relations with the Middle that will
yield or that necessarily involve the disputed relation between the
Extremes.

The simplest type is stated by Aristotle as follows: "When three terms
are so related that the last (the Minor) is wholly in the Middle, and
the Middle wholly either in or not in the first (the Major) there must
be a perfect syllogism of the Extremes".[1]

When the Minor is partly in the Middle, the Syllogism holds equally
good. Thus there are four possible ways in which two terms ([Greek:
oroi], plane enclosures) may be connected or disconnected through a
third. They are usually represented by circles as being the neatest
of figures, but any enclosing outline answers the purpose, and the
rougher and more irregular it is the more truly will it represent the
extension of a word.

Conclusion A.
All M is in P.
All S is in M.
All S is in P.

[Illustration: concentric circles of P, M and S - S in centre]

Conclusion E.
No M is in P.
All S is in M.
No S is in P.

[Illustration: Concentric c