16

1909 March 23
MEANING 4

boys was almost exclusively in disputations, which were hedged
about with rules, called Obligationes, for keeping them to the point
at issue. They entered into these exercises with all their might and disputed
incessantly from morning till night. When a syllogism struck a
disputant for straight in the head, his only possible reply would be
"distinguo" , with an explanation that in admitting the premisses, he
had in one of them taken the middle term in one sense, and in the other
premiss in another sense. Since this situation was continually recurring,
they became extremely acute in drawing distinctions,
acquired great exactitude of thought and language, without really often
penetrating to the real substance of the questions in dispute (when real
substance they had), and learned to command great concentration of
mind in keeping in view all the points of disputations whose intricacy