Publisher's Synopsis
From the PREFACE.
THE following pages have grown out of an attempt to reach, point by point, some solution of various questions in Logic, which, both in learning and in teaching, I have felt to be special sources of difficulty. The continued use of Jevons's Elementary Lessons in Logic with beginners, has particularly contributed to keep these problems before my mind; for Jevons's little book, though full of interest and suggestion, is not free from inconsistencies and confusions in connection with the questions referred to.
Having reached apparent solutions of some difficulties, and finding that these solutions are, as it seems to me, consistent among themselves, and in harmony with a certain general view of Logic which I take, I am desirous to submit what I have written to the test of publication. I at first intended to call this collection of chapters "Notes"; but as objections to this name, which I could not gainsay, were put before me, I have adopted the present title; meaning to convey by it, not that the following pages are intended for beginners, but that they present what is necessary for indicating the outlines of the Science of Logic as I conceive it. What I most strongly feel the need of, and what I should have preferred to attempt to write, is an elementary handbook, corresponding in some respects to Jevons's; but I think that certain divergences of my view from current views require an amount of explanation and justification which would be out of place in a book intended for beginners.
The very large number of references introduced is due to two causes. First, to the wish to confirm my opinion by that of accepted authorities when the two seem to accord; and secondly, to the desire to indicate as precisely as possible, in cases of difference, the doctrines which I am combating....
