contradictory terms, and in stating a Division (chap. xxi.), whether
formal (_as A is B or not-B_) or material (as _Cats are white, or black,
or tortoiseshell, or tabby_). And in some cases the hypothetical form is
useful. One of these occurs where it is important to draw attention to
the condition, as something doubtful or especially requiring
examination. _If there is a resisting medium in space, the earth will
fall into the sun; If the Corn Laws are to be re-enacted, we had better
sell railways and buy land_: here the hypothetical form draws attention
to the questions whether there is a resisting medium in space, whether
the Corn Laws are likely to be re-enacted; but as to methods of
inference and proof, the hypothetical form has nothing to do with them.
The propositions predicate causation: _A resisting medium in space is a
condition of the earth's falling into the sun; A Corn Law is a condition
of the rise of rents, and of the fall of railway profits_.

A second case in which the hypothetical is a specially appropriate form
of statement occurs where a proposition relates to a particular matter
and to future time, as _If there be a storm to-morrow, we shall miss our
picnic_. Such cases are of very slight logical interest. It is as
exercises in formal thinking that hypotheticals are of most value;
inasmuch as many people find them more difficult than categoricals to
manipulate.

In discussing Conditional Propositions, the conditional sentence of a
Hypothetical, or the first alternative of a Disjunctive, is called the
Antecedent; the indicative sentence of a Hypothetical, or the second
alternative of a Disjunctive, is called the Consequent.

Hypotheticals, like Categoricals, have been classed according to
Quantity and Quality. Premising that the quantity of a Hypothetical