This fallacy comes from supposing that the whole thing may be settled by citing some noted authority who apparently substantiates the argument advanced. _Epitome of five forms of Irrelevant Conclusion_: (1) Appealing to the audience. (2) Defaming the character of the opponent. (3) Inability to prove the contradictory. (4) Gaining the point by force. (5) Citing authority. _Non Sequitur (False Consequent)._ _This is the fallacy of deriving a conclusion which does not follow from the premises._ The fallacy obtains whenever material appears in the conclusion, which has no bearing on the case under discussion. “_Irrelevant conclusion_” pertains to the establishment of the premises while “_non sequitur_” is concerned with the conclusion only. We know that a logical thinker constructs the conclusion from material already presented by the premises; “_Non sequitur_” uses material in the conclusion which is found in neither premise. “_Non sequitur_” differs from the fallacy of four terms in that the latter uses the fourth term in the premises while the former introduces the fourth term in the conclusion, and in a form so well obscured that it sometimes escapes notice. Illustration: All men are thinking animals, Socrates was a man, ∴ Socrates was a scholar. It does not follow that because a man is a thinking animal that he will become scholarly. _False Cause._ _This is the fallacy of assuming that because two happenings have occurred together several times, the one is the cause of the other._ This very common fallacy is due to lack of discrimination, and to the exaggerations incident to fear and superstition. Illustrations: (a) Planting vegetables which grow down, such as the beet, during the last two days of the waxing moon in order to have a larger yield. So far as we know the moon has no influence over growing vegetables. (b) Thirteen seated at a table is an indication that one of the number will die during the year. This is one of the most absurd fallacies that has ever been visited upon an intelligent people. It is seen that “False Cause” is closely related to “_Non Sequitur_.” _Complex Question_ (_Double Question_). _This fallacy obtains when an assumption is put in the form of a question._ ILLUSTRATIONS: (a) A wise father who did not want to tempt beyond the yielding point his three-year-old son, asked, pointing to the scratches on the new mahogany piano, “Freddie, did you do that last night or this morning?” (b) What caused you to desist from slandering your neighbors; New Year’s resolutions or the preaching of Dominie X? (c) A daily paper anecdote: