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CHAPTER I.
NEW LAMPS FOR OLD.
"Light come, light go."
1. Propositions.
"Some new Cakes are nice."
"No new Cakes are nice."
"All new cakes are nice."
There are three 'PROPOSITIONS' for you--the only three kinds we
are going to use in this Game: and the first thing to be done is
to learn how to express them on the Board.
Let us begin with
"Some new Cakes are nice."
But before doing so, a remark has to be made--one that is rather
important, and by no means easy to understand all in a moment: so
please to read this VERY carefully.
The world contains many THINGS (such as "Buns", "Babies", "Beetles".
"Battledores". &c.); and these Things possess many ATTRIBUTES
(such as "baked", "beautiful", "black", "broken", &c.: in fact,
whatever can be "attributed to", that is "said to belong to", any
Thing, is an Attribute). Whenever we wish to mention a Thing, we
use a SUBSTANTIVE: when we wish to mention an Attribute, we use
an ADJECTIVE. People have asked the question "Can a Thing exist
without any Attributes belonging to it?" It is a very puzzling
question, and I'm not going to try to answer it: let us turn up
our noses, and treat it with contemptuous silence, as if it really
wasn't worth noticing. But, if they put it the other way, and ask
"Can an Attribute exist without any Thing for it to belong to?", we
may say at once "No: no more than a Baby could go a railway-journey
with no one to take care of it!" You never saw "beautiful" floating
about in the air, or littered about on the floor, without any Thing
to BE beautiful, now did you?
And now what am I driving at, in all this long rigmarole? It is
this. You may put "is" or "are" between names of two THINGS (for
example, "some Pigs are fat Animals"), or between the names of two
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