But even if there were not this particular objection, it does not appear that anything is to be gained in the way of intelligibility or method by such a device as the above. For what is meant by a modal predicate, by the predicate 'probably mortal,' for instance, in the proposition 'All poisonings by arsenic are probably mortal'? If the analogy with ordinary pure propositions is to hold good, it must be a predicate referring to the _whole_ of the subject, for the subject is distributed. But then we are at once launched into the difficulties discussed in a former chapter (Ch. VI. §§19-25), when we attempt to justify or verify the application of the predicate. We have to enquire (at least on the view adopted in this work) whether the application of the predicate 'probably mortal' to the _whole_ of the subject, really means at bottom anything else than that the predicate 'mortal' is to be applied to a _portion_ (more than half) of the members denoted by the subject. When the transference of the modality to the predicate raises such intricate questions as to the sense in which the predicate is to be interpreted, there is surely nothing gained by the step. 5. A second, and more summary way of shelving all difficulties of the subject, so far at least as logic, or the writers upon logic, are concerned, is found by simply denying that modality has any connection whatever with logic. This is the course adopted by many modern writers, for instance, by Hamilton and Mansel, in reference to whom one cannot help remarking that an unduly large portion of their logical writings seems occupied with telling us what does _not_ belong to logic. They justify their rejection on the ground that the mode belongs to the matter, and must be determined by a consideration of the matter, and therefore is extralogical. To a certain extent I agree with their grounds of rejection, for (as explained in Chapter VI.) it is not easy to see how the degree of modality of any proposition, whether premise or conclusion, can be justified without appeal to the matter. But then questions of justification, in any adequate sense of the term, belong to a range of considerations somewhat alien to Hamilton's and Mansel's way of regarding the science. The complete justification of our inferences is a matter which involves their truth or falsehood, a point with which these writers do not much concern themselves, being only occupied with the consistency of our reasonings, not with their conformity with fact. Were I speaking as a Hamiltonian I should say that modality _is_ formal rather than material, for though we cannot justify the degree of our belief of a proposition without appeal to the matter, we can to a moderate degree of accuracy estimate it without any such appeal; and this would seem to be quite enough to warrant its being regarded as formal.