19 Aug. 1814 C

Logic

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Ch. Division

'. Synthesis and Analysis

correspond not

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An inference that presents itself as an obvious one, is - that in the instance of every such aggregate the number of integral parts contained in a logical aggregate being a limited, in a word, a given, a determinate, or, at any rate, a determinable number

{Such accordingly} it would be, were it not for the powers - the unlimited powers, of decomposition and recomposition possessed by the human mind, - of these powers, one effect is to exclude as fruitless every possible attempt at circumscribing within any limited extent the number of such parts into which a logical whole is capable of being divided.

In the case of physical aggregate, it may be done; but not so in the case of logical ones. Take a bushel of apples: the number of integrant parts of that aggregate, each apple constituting one of those integrant parts, will be the number of apples that were put into the bushel, neither more nor less. Some time /years/ ago, the aggregate number of all the species of plants then known was estimated at 40,000. Suppose a garden, and in it a specimen of every one of these 40,000 species; 40,000, neither more nor less, is, in this case, the exact number of integrant parts into which the aggregate here in question is capable of being divided. But, upon this supposition, 40,000 is not equal to the number of integrant parts call species, into which the logical aggregate, designated by the names of plant and vegetable, is capable of being divided.

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