Robbins Library Notes

At left: Ambrose Bierce, c. 1866.

The photograph is part of the Ambrose Bierce Collection of the Clifton Waller Barrett Library of America.

Good morning, readers, and happy Monday to you!

Let’s start off the week with something amusing, shall we?

From Ambrose Bierce’s The Devil’s Dictionary:

LOGIC, n. The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding. The basic of logic is the syllogism, consisting of a major and a minor premise and a conclusion — thus:

Major Premise: Sixty men can do a piece of work sixty times as quickly as one man.

Minor Premise: One man can dig a posthole in sixty seconds; therefore –

Conclusion: Sixty men can dig a posthole in one second.

This may be called the syllogism arithmetical, in which, by combining logic and mathematics, we obtain a double certainty and are twice blessed.

PHILOSOPHY, n. A route of many roads leading from nowhere to nothing.

SYLLOGISM, n. A logical formula consisting of a major and a minor assumption and an inconsequent. (See LOGIC.)