hysteron-proteron

Locke's doctrine, which seems to be the opinion of many contemporary men of science, labours under the same grave inconvenience as that of Descartes, as, by a hysteron-proteron, it accounts for the nature of a given substance by its accidents.

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 6: Fathers of the Church-Gregory XI 1840-1916 1913

Flatly, to me, this is pure nonsense, a putting of the cart before the horse, a vulgar _hysteron-proteron_, none the less execrable because it is the working principle not of a single man, but of the whole of soctety to-day.

The Jessica Letters: An Editor's Romance Paul Elmer More 1900

The title may sound a little misleading, Ruskinian, Horne-Tookian: probably the word "preposterous" would not have been used but for an accidental remembrance of De Quincey, who was so fond of using and explaining it, of pointing out that it signified the behind-before, the cart before the horse, the hysteron-proteron.

Our Stage and Its Critics By "E.F.S." of "The Westminster Gazette" Edward Fordham Spence 1896

But, surely, it were a literary hysteron-proteron to conclude for this reason that they were made only to fill a part in an established ceremony.

The Religions of India Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume 1, Edited by Morris Jastrow Edward Washburn Hopkins 1894

We are wont to get rid of these fundamental facts by hypostatising the ecclesiastical principle or the common ecclesiastical spirit, and by this normal hypostasis, measuring, approving or condemning the doctrines of the theologians, unconcerned about the actual conditions and frequently following a hysteron-proteron.

History of Dogma, Volume 1 (of 7) Adolph Harnack 1890

But here is unfortunately a small hysteron-proteron.

Biographia Literaria Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1803

I noticed that a little while ago you suggested that it might be a good idea to begin a play with the last act; the idea is a mere _hysteron-proteron_, absolutely preposterous, prae-post-erous. "

Our Stage and Its Critics By "E.F.S." of "The Westminster Gazette" Edward Fordham Spence 1896