Abstract
The subject of this paper is a very old one, and may to many appear to be sufficiently worn; but I venture to hope, that there are some to whom a glimpse of the successive approaches of the human mind towards the right understanding of a question of pure logic, may have an interest,—even although the problem solved be an abstract one, and the conclusion a negative conclusion, having little practical application. Like the kindred problem of the quadrature of the circle, or the metaphysical problem of “Knowing and Being,” the theory of parallels has been attacked in various directions, and although it is true that no one ever reached the goal he aimed at, yet it is not the less certain that great and positive results have followed in the history of human attainment. If no other lesson has been learnt, this at least may have been: that in reasoning it is necessary to look warily around and abroad at every step, seeing that admissions, the most obviously inadmissible, or evasions the most palpable, have foiled generations of thinkers, whilst those who have detected their errors have fallen into others of an equally destructive character.
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