Universal Reason, it is because he loves severity of style. CHAPTER II GENERAL ANALYSIS OF PROPOSITIONS § 1. Since Logic discusses the proof or disproof, or (briefly) the testing of propositions, we must begin by explaining their nature. A proposition, then, may first be described in the language of grammar as _a sentence indicative_; and it is usually expressed in the present tense. It is true that other kinds of sentences, optative, imperative, interrogative, exclamatory, if they express or imply an assertion, are not beyond the view of Logic; but before treating such sentences, Logic, for greater precision, reduces them to their equivalent sentences indicative. Thus, _I wish it were summer_ may be understood to mean, _The coming of summer is an object of my desire_. _Thou shalt not kill_ may be interpreted as _Murderers are in danger of the judgment_. Interrogatories, when used in argument, if their form is affirmative, have negative force, and affirmative force if their form is negative. Thus, _Do hypocrites love virtue?_ anticipates the answer, _No_. _Are not traitors the vilest of mankind?_ anticipates the answer, _Yes_. So that the logical form of these sentences is, _Hypocrites are not lovers of virtue_; _Traitors are the vilest of mankind_. Impersonal propositions, such as _It rains_, are easily rendered into logical forms of equivalent meaning, thus: _Rain is falling_; or (if that be tautology), _The clouds are raining_. Exclamations may seem capricious, but are often part of the argument. _Shade of Chatham!_ usually means _Chatham, being aware of our present foreign policy, is much disgusted_. It is in fact, an appeal to authority, without the inconvenience of stating what exactly it is that the authority declares. § 2. But even sentences indicative may not be expressed in the way most convenient to logicians. _Salt dissolves in water_ is a plain enough statement; but the logician prefers to have it thus: _Salt is soluble in water_. For he says that a proposition is analysable into three elements: (1) a Subject (as _Salt_) about which something is asserted or denied; (2) a Predicate (as _soluble in water_) which is asserted or denied of the Subject, and (3) the Copula (_is_ or _are_, or _is not_ or _are not_), the sign of relation between the Subject and Predicate. The Subject and Predicate are called the Terms of the proposition: and the Copula may be called the sign of predication, using the verb 'to predicate' indefinitely for either 'to affirm' or 'to deny.' Thus _S is P_ means that the term _P_ is given as related in some way to the term _S_. We may, therefore, further define a Proposition as 'a sentence in which one term is predicated of another.'