tory, but expressed in such a way as to seem like a general truth
capable of subsuming the proposition in dispute: it is generally known
as _petitio principii_, or begging the question. The question may be
begged in three ways:

(1) There are what Mill calls Fallacies _a priori_, mere assertions,
pretending to be self-evident, and often sincerely accepted as such by
the author and some infatuated disciples, but in which the cool
spectator sees either no sense at all, or palpable falsity. These sham
axioms are numerous; and probably every one is familiar with the
following examples: That circular motion is the most perfect; That every
body strives toward its natural place; That like cures like; That every
bane has its antidote; That what is true of our conceptions is true of
Nature; That pleasure is nothing but relief from pain; That the good,
the beautiful and the true are the same thing; That, in trade, whatever
is somewhere gained is somewhere lost; That only in agriculture does
nature assist man; That a man may do what he will with his own; That
some men are naturally born to rule and others to obey. Some of these
doctrines are specious enough; whilst, as to others, how they could ever
have been entertained arouses a wonder that can only be allayed by a
lengthy historical and psychological disquisition.

(2) Verbal propositions offered as proof of some matter of fact. These
have, indeed, one attribute of axioms; they are self-evident to any one
who knows the language; but as they only dissect the meaning of words,
nothing but the meaning of words can be inferred from them. If anything
further is arrived at, it must be by the help of real propositions. How
common is such an argument as this: 'Lying is wrong, because it is
vicious'--the implied major premise being that 'what is vicious is
wrong.' All three propositions are verbal, and we merely learn from them
that lying is _called_ vicious and wrong; and to make that knowledge
deterrent, it must be supplemented by a further premise, that 'whatever
is called wrong ought to be avoided.' This is a real proposition; but it
is much more difficult to prove it than 'that lying ought to be
avoided.' Still, such arguments, though bad Logic, often have a
rhetorical force: to call lying not only wrong but vicious, may be
dissuasive by accumulating associations of shame and ignominy.

Definitions, being the most important of verbal propositions (since they
imply the possibility