erception; that perception is inseparable
from understanding, and that a system of Induction may be constructed
upon the axiom of Causation, regarded as a principle of Reason, just as
well as by considering it as a law of Nature, and upon much the same
lines. The Materialist, admitting all this, may say that a judgment is
only the proximate meaning of a proposition, and that the ultimate
meaning, the meaning of the judgment itself, is always some
matter-of-fact; that the other schools have not hitherto been eager to
recognise the unity of Deduction and Induction or to investigate the
conditions of trustworthy experiments and observations within the limits
of human understanding; that thought is itself a sort of fact, as
complex in its structure, as profound in its relations, as subtle in its
changes as any other fact, and therefore at least as hard to know; that
to turn away from the full reality of thought in perception, and to
confine Logic to artificially limited concepts, is to abandon the effort
to push method to the utmost and to get as near truth as possible; and
that as to Causation being a principle of Reason rather than of Nature,
the distinction escapes his apprehension, since Nature seems to be that
to which our private minds turn upon questions of Causation for
correction and instruction; so that if he does not call Nature the
Universal Reason, it is because he loves severity of style.

CHAPTER II

GENERAL ANALYSIS OF PROPOSITIONS

Sec. 1. Since Logic discusses the proof or disproof, or (briefly) the
testing of propositions, we must begin by explaining their nature. A
proposition, then, may first be described in the language of grammar as
_a sentence indicative_; and it is usually expressed in the present
tense.

It is true that other kinds of sentences, optative, imperative,
interrogative, exclamatory, if they express or imply an assertion, are
not beyond the view of Logic; but before treating such sentences, Logic,
for greater precision, reduces them to their equivalent sentences
indicative. Thus, _I wish it were summer_ may be understood to mean,
_The coming of summer is an object of my desire_. _Thou shalt not kill_
may be interpreted as _Murderers are in danger of the judgment_.
Interrogatories, when used in argument, if their form is affirmative,
have negative force, and affirmative force if their form is negative.
Thus, _Do hypocrites love virtue?_ anticipates the answer, _No_. _Are
not