29 Aug 1804

Evidence

Circumstantial

Ch.2 Explanations

[...?] as [...?], or abridged?

(An observation is here necessary to prevent ambiguity /indistinctness/ and confusion. The considerations

The question of certainty and necessity on the one hand, and of impossibility on the other, are /there seem to be/ more closely connected, than might at first sight be supposed.) Correspondent to every positive fact - to the existence of any given fact is a negative fact - the non-existence of that same fact. Certainty of the existence of any given positive fact is the same thing /synonymous/with impossibility of the existence of the correspondent negative fact. Certainty of the existence of any given negative fact, is the same thing with impossibility of the existence of the correspondent positive fact. Acts of a negative nature, are frequently found disguised under a positive denomination. Take, for instance starving (a child or prisoner[?]); insolvency; absconding; smuggling in various cases.

So again facts at large. That Titius is dead, may at first sight be taken for a positive fact. Examined more closely it will appear to be more properly a negative fact: dead being only an abridged mode of saying, not /no longer/ alive. So again in the case of absence: absent from such or such a place /is as much as/ not present /absent is as much as to say, not present/ - not in such /that/ or such a place.