ess the major for the sake of
brevity, but it is understood though not expressed; just as in the
same manner as we sometimes content ourselves with merely implying the
conclusion itself, because it is sufficiently evident without further
words. If any one should so far depart from common sense as to
question the mortality of some great king, we should think it
sufficient to say for all argument--the king is a man!--virtually
implying the whole triplet above mentioned:--

"All men are mortal.
The king is a man;
Therefore the king is mortal."

"In pursuing the supposed investigation, (into the operation of
reasoning,)" says Archbishop Whately, "it will be found that every
conclusion is deduced, in reality, from two other propositions,
(thence called _Premisses_;) for though one of these may be and
commonly is suppressed, it must nevertheless be understood as
admitted, as may easily be made evident by supposing the _denial_ of
the suppressed premiss, which will at once invalidate the argument;
_e.g._ if any one, from perceiving that 'the world exhibits marks of
design,' infers that 'it must have had an intelligent author,' though
he may not be aware in his own mind of the existence of any other
premiss, he will readily understand, if it be _denied_ that 'whatever
exhibits marks of design must have had an intelligent author,' that
the affirmative of that proposition is necessary to the solidity of
the argument. An argument thus stated regularly and at full length, is
called a syllogism; which, therefore, is evidently not a peculiar
_kind of argument_, but only a peculiar _form_ of expression, in which
every argument may be stated."--_Whately's Logic_, p. 27.

"It will be found," he continues, "that all valid arguments whatever
may be easily reduced to such a form as that of the foregoing
syllogisms; and that consequently the principle on which they are
constructed is the UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLE of reasoning. So elliptical,
indeed, is the ordinary mode of expression, even of those who are
considered as prolix writers,--_i.e._ so much is implied and left to
be understood in the course of argument, in comparison of what is
actually stated, (most men being impatient, even to excess, of any
appearance of unnecessary and tedious formality of statement,) that a
single sentence will often be found, though perhaps considered as a
single argument, to contain, compressed into a short compass, a chain
of several distinct a