Excerpt from An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent NO one is likely to deny that a question is distinct both from a conclusion and from an assertion and an assertion will be found to be equally distinct from a conclusion. For, if we rest our affirmation on argu ments, this shows that we are not asserting; and, when we assert, we do not argue. An assertion is as distinct from a conclusion, as a word of command is from a per suasion or recommendation. Command and assertion, as such, both Of them, in their different ways, dispense with, discard, ignore, antecedents of any kind, though antecedents may have been a sine gud non condition Of their being elicited. They both carry with them the pretension of being personal acts. In insisting on the intrinsic distinctness Of these three modes of putting a proposition, I am not main taining that they may not co-exist as regards one and the same subject. For what we have already concluded, we may, if we will, make a question of and what we are asserting, we may of course conclude over again. We may assert, to one man, and conclude to another. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.