The happening of his arrival │ │an event from which it may be
to-morrow │is│ inferred as probable that he
│ │ will stay till Monday.
The forms of language will allow the manner of asserting to be varied in
a great number of ways; but the reduction to the preceding form is
always possible. Thus, ‘so he said’ is an affirmation, reducible as
follows:
What you have just said (or │is│the thing which he said.
whatever else ‘so’ refers to) │ │
By changing ‘is’ into ‘is not,’ we make a negative proposition; but care
must always be taken to ascertain whether a proposition which appears
negative is really so. The principal danger is that of confounding a
proposition which is negative with another which is affirmative of
something requiring a negative to describe it. Thus ‘he resembles the
man who was not in the room,’ is affirmative, and must not be confounded
with ‘he does not resemble the man who was in the room.’ Again, ‘if he
should come to-morrow, it is probable he will not stay till Monday,’
does not mean the simple denial of the preceding proposition, but the
affirmation of the directly opposite proposition. It is,