Cursus Philosophicus Thomisticus, Secunda Pars Artis Logicae

To the Reader¹

I now discharge, in this edition, the pledge I had made to publish the second part of Logic, a pledge I renew all the more gladly and eagerly for the benefit of my readers. Certainly, as far as it lay with me, intent as I was on the advantage of students, for whom questions disputed at length are no small obstacle and source of weariness, I confess that I have treated these matters so that I do not presume to have illuminated matters for the keener eyes, but neither to have obscured them for those who are slower. I have continually taken care to disclose, as briefly as possible, what is to be held, lest, by wearing out the discussion with various digressions while finding fault with other people's positions, we suspend our own judgment. For Ambrose aptly warned in his preface to the Psalms² that “what is explained more briefly is easier.” I believe, moreover, that the chief aim of a writer, especially in unfolding these preliminary sciences, should be to offer facility rather than erudition and an elaborate store of learning.

What I promised in the first part of Logic—that I would here resolve many of the questions commonly treated there—I have fully delivered, except that, for good reasons, I have decided that the treatise on signs, which teems with many and no ordinary difficulties, should be published separately. Introduced or scattered here, it would burden these treatises, which are already weighty enough in themselves. It will appear as a commentary on the books of Perihermenias, together with the questions on the books of the Posterior Analytics; for the more convenient use of the book, I have also separated it from the treatise on the Categories.

What remains of natural philosophy, which is needed to complete the whole course of the arts, we solemnly promise to publish in due time, in a similar style and with similar labor, once again bound by the same pledge. Farewell.