For the natural order of the
connecting ideas must direct the order of the syllogisms, and a man
must see the connexion of each intermediate idea with those that it
connects, before he can with reason make use of it in a syllogism. And
when all those syllogisms are made, neither those that are nor those
that are not logicians will see the force of the argumentation,
i.e., the connexion of the extremes, one jot the better. [For those
that are not men of art, not knowing the true forms of syllogism,
nor the reasons of them, cannot know whether they are made in right
and conclusive modes and figures or no, and so are not at all helped
by the forms they are put into; though by them the natural order,
wherein the mind could judge of their respective connexion, being
disturbed, renders the illation much more uncertain than without
them.] And as for the logicians themselves, they see the connexion
of each intermediate idea with those it stands between, (on which
the force of the inference depends,) as well before as after the
syllogism is made, or else they do not see it at all. For a
syllogism neither shows nor strengthens the connexion of any two ideas
immediately put together, but only by the connexion seen in them shows
what connexion the extremes have one with another. But what
connexion the intermediate has with either of the extremes in the
syllogism, that no syllogism does or can show.
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