We have already defined mediate inference as the derivation of a conclusion from more than one proposition. The type or form of a mediate inference fully expressed consists of three propositions so related that one of them is involved or implied in the other two. Distraction is exhausting. Modern life is full of distraction [.'.] Modern life is exhausting. We say nothing of the truth of these propositions. I purposely choose questionable ones. But do they hang together? If you admit the first two, are you bound in consistency to admit the third? Is the truth of the conclusion a necessary consequence of the truth of the premisses? If so, it is a valid mediate inference from them. When one of the two premisses is more general than the conclusion, the argument is said to be Deductive. You lead down from the more general to the less general. The general proposition is called the Major Premiss, or Grounding Proposition, or Sumption: the other premiss the Minor, or Applying Proposition, or Subsumption. Undue haste makes waste. This is a case of undue hasting. [.'.] It is a case of undue wasting. We may, and constantly do, apply principles and draw conclusions in this way without making any formal analysis of the propositions. Indeed we reason mediately and deductively whenever we make any application of previous knowledge, although the process is not expressed in propositions at all and is performed so rapidly that we are not conscious of the steps. For example, I enter a room, see a book, open it and begin to read. I want to make a note of something: I look round, see a paper case, open it, take a sheet of paper and a pen, dip the pen in the ink and proceed to write. In the course of all this, I act upon certain inferences which might be drawn out in the form of Syllogisms. First, in virtue of previous knowledge I recognise what lies before me as a book. The process by which I reach the conclusion, though it passes in a flash, might be analysed and expressed in propositions. Whatever presents certain outward appearances, contains readable print. This presents such appearances. [.'.]It contains readable print. So with the paper case, and the pen, and the ink. I infer from peculiar appearances that what I see contains paper, that the liquid will make a black mark on the white sheet, and so forth. We are constantly in daily life subsuming particulars under known universals in this way. "Whatever has certain visible properties, has certain other properties: this has the visible ones: therefore, it has the others" is a form of reasoning constantly latent in our minds.