The practical difficulties, of course, consist in the reduction of the conclusions and arguments of common speech to definite terms thus simply related. Once they are so reduced, their independence or the opposite is obvious. Therein lies the virtue of the Syllogism. Before proceeding to show in how many ways two terms may be Syllogised through a third, we must have technical names for the elements. The third term is called the MIDDLE (M) ([Greek: to meson]): the other two the Extremes ([Greek: akra]). The EXTREMES are the Subject (S) and the Predicate (P) of the conclusion. In an affirmative proposition (the normal form) S is contained in P: hence P is called the MAJOR[1] term ([Greek: to meixon]), and S the MINOR ([Greek: to elatton]), being respectively larger and smaller in extension. All difficulty about the names disappears if we remember that in bestowing them we start from the conclusion. That was the problem ([Greek: problema]) or thesis in dialectic, the question in dispute. The two Premisses, or propositions giving the relations between the two Extremes and the Middle, are named on an equally simple ground. One of them gives the relation between the Minor Term, S, and the Middle, M. S, All or Some, is or is not in M. This is called the Minor Premiss. The other gives the relation between the Major Term and the Middle. M, All or Some, is or is not in P. This is called the Major Premiss.[2] [Footnote 1: Aristotle calls the Major the First ([Greek: to proton]) and the Minor the last ([Greek: to eschaton]), probably because that was their order in the conclusion when stated in his most usual form, "P is predicated of S," or "P belongs to S".] [Footnote 2: When we speak of the Minor or the Major simply, the reference is to the terms. To avoid a confusion into which beginners are apt to stumble, and at the same time to emphasise the origin of the names, the Premisses might be spoken of at first as the Minor's Premiss and the Major's Premiss. It was only in the Middle Ages when the origin of the Syllogism had been forgotten, that the idea arose that the terms were called Major and Minor because they occurred in the Major and the Minor Premiss respectively.] CHAPTER II. FIGURES AND MOODS OF THE SYLLOGISM. I.--The First Figure. The forms (technically called MOODS, _i.e._, modes) of the First Figure are founded on the simplest relations with the Middle that will yield or that necessarily involve the disputed relation between the Extremes. The simplest type is stated by Aristotle as follows: "When three terms are so related that the last (the Minor) is wholly in the Middle, and the Middle wholly either in or not in the first (the Major) there must be a perfect syllogism of the Extremes".[1]