We use the two propositions as the premisses of a syllogism giving a conclusion which is manifestly false, as contradicting either the nature of things, or other statements of our opponent himself; that is to say, the conclusion is false either ad rem or ad hominem.

"I too," he says, "once made this very remark to Rufus when he rebuked me for not discovering the suppressed premiss in some syllogism.

[Footnote 9: A Sorites, in Logic,from [Greek: sôrós], a heapis a pile of syllogisms so compacted that the conclusion of one serves as a premiss to the next.

I am not going to enter at all on the subject-matter itself, or to say whether I agree, or not, with your conclusions: but merely to examine, from a logic-lecturer's point of view, your premisses as relating to them.

[80] If he means that the only legitimate data of geologists are facts of observation, classified and recorded, well and good; but to deny that they deal largely in hypotheses, and use them constantly as the premisses for inferences which are equally hypothetical, is palpably absurd.

For the premiss on account of which we intend to demand that that point which is doubtful shall be conceded to us, ought not to be doubtful itself.