CHAPTER XVI. The Commutative Law

THE COMMUTATIVE LAW

Often the meaning of a sentence tacitly implies that the commutative law does not hold. We are all familiar with the passage in which Macaulay pointed out that, by using the commutative law because of exigencies of metre, Robert Montgomery unintentionally made Creation tremble at the Atheist's nod instead of the Almighty's. This use of the commutative law by writers of verse renders it doubtful whether, in the hymn-line:

The humble poor believe,

we are to understand a statement about the humble poor, or a doubtful maxim as to the attitude of our minds to statements made by the humble poor.

The non-commutativity of English titles offers difficulties to some novelists and Americans who refer to Mary Lady So-and-So as Lady Mary So-and-So, and vice versa.