text:  Socrates is a man; THEREFORE Socrates is mortal'-- it is unanswerably urged by the adversaries of the syllogistic theory that the proposition Socrates is mortal is presupposed in the more general assumption All men are mortal; that we cannot be assured of the mortality of all men unless we were previously certain of the mortality of every individual man; that if it be still doubtful whether Socrates or any other individual you choose to name be mortal or not the same degree of uncertainty must hang over the assertion All men are mortal; that the general principle instead of being given as evidence of the particular case cannot itself be taken for true without exception until every shadow of doubt which could affect any case comprised with it is dispelled by evidence _aliunde_ and then what remains for the syllogism to prove? that in short no reasoning from generals to particulars can as such prove any thing; since from a general principle you cannot infer any particulars but those which the principle itself assumes as foreknown