7. There is another and practical way of getting rid of the perplexities of modal reasoning which must be noticed here. It is the resource of ordinary reasoners rather than the decision of professed logicians,[7] and, like the first method of evasion already pointed out in this chapter, is of very partial application. It consists in treating the premises, during the process of reasoning, as if they were pure, and then reintroducing the modality into the conclusion, as a sort of qualification of its full certainty. When each of the premises is nearly certain, or when from any cause we are not concerned with the extent of their departure from full certainty, this rough expedient will answer well enough. It is, I apprehend, the process which passes through the minds of most persons in such cases, in so far as they reason consciously. They would, presumably, in such an example as that previously given (§4), proceed as if the premises that 'those who take arsenic will die,' and that 'the man in question has taken it,' were quite true, instead of being only probably true, and they would consequently draw the conclusion that 'he would die.' But bearing in mind that the premises are not certain, they would remember that the conclusion was only to be held with a qualified assent. This they would express quite correctly, if the mere nature and not the degree of that assent is taken into account, by saying that 'he is likely to die.' In this case the modality is rejected temporarily from the premises to be reintroduced into the conclusion. It is obvious that such a process as this is of a very rough and imperfect kind. It does, in fact, omit from accurate consideration just the one point now under discussion. It takes no account of the varying shades of expression by which the degree of departure from perfect conviction is indicated, which is of course the very thing with which modality is intended to occupy itself. At best, therefore, it could only claim to be an extremely rude way of deciding questions, the accurate and scientific methods of treating which are demanded of us.