Year: 1869

The word oblige is subject to paradoxical
construction. When you oblige man to
| do thing which he does not want to do,
you may disoblige him at the same time.
| 1t has been remarked that there is a very
great difference between church where
the gospel is dispensed, and one where it
is dispensed with. We have often heard
the story of how the captain of canal
boat cried "Look out! to his passengers
when they were going under a bridge, and
how Frenchman looked out accordingly
and received bump on his head but it
| has never been decided that the French


man took any incorrect or unusual signifi-
cation from the words. 1t has never been
decided whether house burns up or
down. The question whether man who
| falls from a boat and is rescued from
drowning is pulled out or pulled in
| depends mainly whether you are speaking
primarily of the water or the boat. Some
one has noticed that people say they shell
peas when they unshell them; that they
husk corn when they unhusk it; that they
skin buffalo when they unskin it; that
they scale fishes when they unscale them,
and their gardens want wedding when they
are weedy enough already.


These paradoXes in words are the fOun-
dation of the puzzles in logic which are
so common. For instance, the trite syllo-
gism to the effect that because no cat has
two tails, and because cat has one tail
more than no cat, therefore cat has three
tails, the trouble arises in the paradoxical
use of the phrase "no cat" While it is
quite true in one sense that no cat has two
tails it is not true in the sense in which it
is employed, in the syllogism, because a
"no cat" being nonenity has no tail.
Similar it is argued that Oxford must, from
all antiquity, have been either somewhere
or nowhere. Where was it at the time of
Tarauinius Priscus? 1t was nowhere, then
it surely must have been somewhere.
Where was it? Aristotle and Philetus,
and don't know how many others, are
said to have bothered themselves very
much with proposition something like
this. If you say of yourself, =" lie" and
in saying so tell the truth, then it is quite
evident that you lie; but if you say 81
lie" and you tell lie in saying it, then
YOU also tell the truth in saying it. In
either cases you lie and tell the truth at
the same time.


have heard somebody make the fol-
lowing proposition. Suppose, for example,
that a man 30 years old marries a girl 5
wears old. He is seven times as old as she.
They live together five years and the girl
is 10 wears old Then the man is 40 years
old, or only four times as old as the girl.
They live together five years more and
she is Is. The man then is 45, or only
three times as old They live until she is
30 and the man 60. He is then only twice
as old. Now, how long will they have to
live to make the girl as old as the man?
Although, in this case, the girl is catch
ing the man very fast, the reasoning is
similar to that by which. it was long ago
argued that man never could catch tor
toise which had mile the start. While the
man runs mile the tortoise goes one-tenth
of a mile; while the man runs one -hundreth
of mile, the tortoise goes one-thousandth
of mile while the man runs one-thou-
sandth of mile, the tortoise goes ono
tenth thousandth Of mile, and so on to
any extent of which the decimal notation
is capable-the tortoise always being some
infinitesimal fraction of space ahead OF the
man.


/ will give only one illustration more of
this character Roe wishes to study law


with Doe, and offers TO pay the customary
fee when he shall have won his first suit


at law. To this Doe agrees and Roe be-


comes student. Doe gets tired of wait
ing for his fee and determines to sue Roe
for the amount. Doe reasons "If gain
the case, Roe will be compelled to pay me


by the decision Of the Court; if lose it,


he will have TO pay me by the condition


Of our contract, as he will have won his
first lawsuit" But Roe also reasons: Ii
succeed and the award OF the Conrt u