The Soldier and the Hunchback ! and ?

THE EQUINOX “existential import” to consider the matter, to that further complexity and contradiction, the syllogism. IV Thought is appears then (in the worst case possible, denial) as the conclusion of the premisses : There is denial of thought. (All) Denial of thought is thought. Even formally, ’tis a clumsy monster. Essentially, it seems to involve a great deal beyond our original statement. We compass heaven and earth to make one syllogism; and when we have made it, it is tenfold more the child of mystery than ourselves. We cannot here discuss the whole problem of the validity (the surface-question of the logical validity) of the syllogism; though one may throw out the hint that the doctrine of distributed middle seems to assume a knowledge of a Calculus of Infinites which is certainly beyond my own poor attain- ments, and hardly impregnable to the simple reflection that all mathematics is conventional, and not essential; relative, and not absolute. We go deeper and deeper, then, it seems, from the One into the Many. Our primary proposition depends no longer upon itself, but upon the whole complex being of man, poor, disputing, muddle-headed man! Man with all his limitations and ignorance ; man—man! 118