ences, have gained the knowledge that all men are mortal. For
that reason, even while he yet lives, we may know the particular fact
that Socrates, being a man, is also mortal. In this process the person
is supposed to start with the known general truth, "All men are mortal";
next, to call to mind the fact that Socrates is a man; and finally, by a
comparison of these statements or thoughts, reason out, or deduce, the
inference that therefore Socrates is mortal. This process is, therefore,
usually illustrated in what is called the syllogistic form, thus:

All men are mortal.
Socrates is a man.
Socrates is mortal.

When particular knowledge about an individual thing or event is thus
inferred by comparing two known statements, it is said to be secured by
a process of _deduction_, or by inference.

GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

In all of the above examples, whether experienced through the senses,
built up by an act of imagination, or gained by inference, the
knowledge is of a single thing, fact, organism, or unity, possessing a
real or imaginary existence. In addition to possessing its own
individual unity, however, a thing will stand in a more or less close
relation with many other things. Various individuals, therefore, enter
into larger relations constituting groups, or classes, of objects. In
addition, therefore, to recognizing the object as a particular
experience, the mind is able, by examining certain individuals, to
select and relate the common characteristics of such classes, or groups,
and build up a general, or class, idea, which is representative of any
member of the class. Thus arise such general ideas as book, man, island,
county, etc. These are known as universal, or class, notions. Moreover,
such rules, or definitions, as, "A noun is the name of anything"; "A
fraction is a number which expresses one or more equal parts of a
whole," are general truths, because they express in the form of a
statement the general qualities which have been read into the ideas,
noun and fraction. When the mind, from a study of particulars, thus
either forms a class notion as noun, triangle, hepatica, etc., or draws
a general conclusion as, "Air has weight," "Any two sides of a triangle
are together greater than the third side," it is said to gain general
knowledge.

ACQUISITION OF GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

=A. Conception.=--In describing the method of attaining general
knowledge, it is customary to divide such knowledge into