regarded as an evil; especially as, when that task is accomplished, every source of doubt or ambiguity is removed. In employing the method of this treatise . . . the process of inference is conducted with a precision which might almost be termed mechanical."—Laws of Thought, ch. xiii. §§ 1,2.
"There are many special departments of science which cannot be completely surveyed from within, but require to be studied also from an external point of view, and to be regarded in connection with other and kindred subjects, in order that their full proportions may be understood." (Laws of Thought, ch. viii. § 1). The above passage is in line with George Boole's opinion that no Church can properly be reformed from within. The errors of a Church, he considered, must always be attacked from without. The ideal condition, of course, would be that Reformers within a Church should voluntarily seek the assistance of those who look on from the outside; but George Boole could not be induced to believe that such liberality was possible.
The following passage is interesting, as bearing on the question of the relation between rival systems of Theology.
"If the general truths of Logic are of such a nature that when presented to the mind they at once command assent, wherein consists the difficulty of constructing the Science of Logic ? Not in collecting the materials of knowledge, but in discriminating their nature, and determining their mutual place and relation. All sciences consist of general truths: but of those truths, some only are primary and fundamental, others are secondary and derived. The laws of elliptic motion, discovered by Kepler, are general truths in Astronomy, but they are
