The term _judgment_, as a mental faculty, signifies “that power of the
mind by which it notices _relations_.” It is often used to signify all
the intellectual powers, among which it is the most important one. Thus
we hear it said that, in certain cases, the _feelings_ and the
_judgment_ are in opposition, or that the _heart_ and the _judgment_ are
not in agreement.
It is also used often to signify any act of the mind when a comparison
is made between two things, or between the truths asserted in any
proposition and a truth already believed. The act called _memory_ is a
conception attended with one specific act of judgment, by which a
present state of mind is compared with a past, and the relation of
resemblance perceived.
The nature of our ideas of relation are very different, according to the
object or purpose for which the comparison is made. If objects are
compared in reference to _time_, we learn some one of the relations of
past, present, or future. No idea of time can be gained except by
comparing one period of time with another, and thus noticing their
relations. All _dates_ are gained by comparing one point of time with
some specified event, such as the birth of the Savior, or some
particular period in the revolution of the earth around the sun.
If objects are compared in reference to the _succession_ of our
conceptions or perceptions, we gain the ideas of such relations as are
expressed by the terms _firstly_, _secondly_, and _thirdly_. If objects
are compared in reference to the _degree_ of any quality, we gain an
idea of such relations as are expressed by the terms _brighter_,
_sweeter_, _harder_, _louder_. If objects are compared in reference to
_proportion_, we gain ideas of such relations as are expressed by the
terms _an eighth_, _a half_. If objects are compared in reference to the
relation of parts to a whole, we gain such ideas as are expressed by the
terms _part_, _whole_, _remainder_.
The process of classifying objects and the use of language depend upon
the power of judgment; for if we see an object possessing certain
qualities, in order to apply the name we must compare and observe their
resemblance to the qualities to which such a name has been applied in
past experience, and this feeling of resemblance is an act of judgment.
The application of a name, then, always implies the exercise of the
power of judgment, by which a comparison is made between the present
qualities observed in an object and the same qualities which affected
the mind when the name has formerly been employed. It also implies the
act of association, by which the perception of certain qualities recalls
the idea of the sound or object with which they have been repeatedly
conjoined.
The mental process called _reasoning_ is nothing but a connected
succession of acts of judgment. It is a comparison of what is asserted
in a given proposition with some truth which is believed, or which has
been established by evidence, and then observing the agreement or
disagreement. Thus the truth that “things will be in agreement with past
experience unless there is some reason for the contrary,” is a truth
which every mind believes. Whenever, therefore, any event has been
repeatedly an object of past experience, it is compared with this truth
already believed, and found to be included under it, and therefore
entitled to the same credit.
Thus, also, the truth that “things which equal the same thing equal one
another,” is one which every mind believes. When any object by
examination is found to be included under that class of objects which
are thus equal to the same thing, it is an act of reasoning when we
infer that they are equal to one another.
