§ 1. Of the terms of a proposition which is the Subject and which the Predicate? In most of the exemplary propositions cited by Logicians it will be found that the subject is a substantive and the predicate an adjective, as in _Men are mortal_. This is the relation of Substance and Attribute which we saw (chap. i. § 5) to be the central type of relations of coinherence; and on this model other predications may be formed in which the subject is not a substance, but is treated as if it were, and could therefore be the ground of attributes; as _Fame is treacherous, The weather is changeable_. But, in literature, sentences in which the adjective comes first are not uncommon, as _Loud was the applause, Dark is the fate of man, Blessed are the peacemakers_, and so on. Here, then, 'loud,' 'dark' and 'blessed' occupy the place of the logical subject. Are they really the subject, or must we alter the order of such sentences into _The applause was loud_, etc.? If we do, and then proceed to convert, we get _Loud was the applause_, or (more scrupulously) _Some loud noise was the applause_. The last form, it is true, gives the subject a substantive word, but 'applause' has become the predicate; and if the substantive 'noise' was not implied in the first form, _Loud is the applause_, by what right is it now inserted? The recognition of Conversion, in fact, requires us to admit that, formally, in a logical proposition, the term preceding the copula is subject and the one following is predicate. And, of course, materially considered, the mere order of terms in a proposition can make no difference in the method of proving it, nor in the inferences that can be drawn from it.