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The work analyzes how minds apprehend and accept propositions by distinguishing three mental modes—doubt, inference, and assent—and three grammatical forms—interrogative, conditional, and categorical. It differentiates notional (intellectual) from real (affective or religious) assent, examines certitude and varieties of inference (formal, informal, natural), and develops the notion of an illative sense, an habitual practical reasoning faculty that converts probability into conviction. Throughout, it applies these distinctions to questions of natural and revealed religion, showing how theological propositions are grasped, appropriated, and affirmed by different faculties of intellect and imagination.
To
Edward Bellasis,
Serjeant At Law,
In Remembrance
Of A Long, Equable, Sunny Friendship;
In Gratitude
For Continual Kindnesses Shown To Me,
For An Unwearied Zeal In My Behalf,
For A Trust In Me Which Has Never Wavered,
And A Prompt, Effectual Succour And Support
In Times Of Special Trial,
From His Affectionate
J. H. N.
February 21, 1870.