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 Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing
400th Volume of STUDFUZZ · 400th Volume of STUDFUZZ · 400th Volume of STUDFUZZ · 400th Volume of STUDFUZZ

Sunil Jacob John

Soft Sets
Theory and Applications
Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing

Volume 400

Series Editor
Janusz Kacprzyk, Systems Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences,
Warsaw, Poland
The series “Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing” contains publications on
various topics in the area of soft computing, which include fuzzy sets, rough sets,
neural networks, evolutionary computation, probabilistic and evidential reasoning,
multi-valued logic, and related fields. The publications within “Studies in Fuzziness
and Soft Computing” are primarily monographs and edited volumes. They cover
significant recent developments in the field, both of a foundational and applicable
character. An important feature of the series is its short publication time and
world-wide distribution. This permits a rapid and broad dissemination of research
results.
Indexed by ISI, DBLP and Ulrichs, SCOPUS, Zentralblatt Math, GeoRef, Current
Mathematical Publications, IngentaConnect, MetaPress and Springerlink. The books
of the series are submitted for indexing to Web of Science.

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/2941

Sunil Jacob John

Soft Sets
Theory and Applications

123
Sunil Jacob John
Department of Mathematics
National Institute of Technology Calicut
Calicut, Kerala, India

ISSN 1434-9922 ISSN 1860-0808 (electronic)

Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing
ISBN 978-3-030-57653-0 ISBN 978-3-030-57654-7 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57654-7
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2021
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether
the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of
illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and
transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar
or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from
the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this
book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the
authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained
herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard
to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Dedicated to
My beloved father Late Mr. Jacob John
&
My respected Guru Prof. T. Thrivikraman.
Foreword

G. J. Klir has stated that among the various paradigmatic changes in science and
mathematics in the twentieth century, one such change concerned the concept of
uncertainty. In science, this change has been manifested by a gradual transition
from the traditional view, which states that uncertainty is undesirable in science and
should be avoided by all possible means, to an alternative which is tolerant of
uncertainty and insists that science cannot avoid it. Uncertainty is essential to
science and has great utility. An important point in the evolution of the modern
concept of uncertainty was a publication of a seminal paper by Lotfi Zadeh.
Soft set theory was proposed by Molodtsov in 1999 to deal with uncertainty in a
parametric manner. A soft set is a parameterized family of sets, intuitively soft
because the boundary of the set depends on the parameters. One notion of a set is
the concept of vagueness. This vagueness or the representation of imperfect
knowledge has been a problem for a long time for philosophers, logicians, and
mathematicians. Recently, it became a crucial issue for computer scientists par-
ticularly in the area of artificial intelligence. To handle situations like this, many
tools have been suggested. They include fuzzy sets, multisets, rough sets, soft sets,
and many more.
Molodtsov proposed soft set as a completely generic mathematical tool for
modeling uncertainties. There is no limited condition to the description of objects.
Thus researchers can choose the form of parameters they need. This simplifies the
decision-making process and makes the process more efficient in the absence of
partial information.
A soft set can be considered as an approximate description of an object precisely
consisting of two parts, namely, predicate and approximate value set. Exact solu-
tions to the mathematical models are needed in classical mathematics. If the model
is so complicated that we cannot get an exact solution, we can derive an approx-
imate solution and there are many methods for this. On the other hand, in soft set
theory as the initial description of object itself is of an approximate nature, we need
not have to introduce the concept of an exact solution.

vii
viii Foreword

Soft set theory has rich potential for application in many directions, some of
which are reported by Molodtsov in his work. He successfully applied soft set
theory in areas such as the smoothness of functions, game theory, operation
research, Riemann integration, and elsewhere. Later he presented some definitions
on soft sets as a subset, the complement of a soft set and discussed in detail the
application of soft theory in decision-making problems. Applications have been
made to decision-making, business competitive capacity information systems,
classification of natural textures, optimization problems, data analysis, similarity
measures, algebraic structures of soft sets, soft matrix theory, parameter reduction
in soft set theory, classification of natural textures, and soft sets and their relation to
rough and fuzzy sets.
The book, Soft Sets: Theory and Applications, by Prof. S. J. John is a strong
contribution to the development of soft set theory. It examines the algebraic and
topological structure of soft sets. It also considers some hybrid structures of soft
sets. The book contains interesting applications to decision-making, medical and
financial diagnosis problems. It is my hope that researchers will apply the concepts
of soft set theory to the existential problem of climate change and related problems
such as world hunger, coronavirus, modern slavery, and human trafficking.

Creighton University, USA John N. Mordeson

June 2020
Preface

A challenging problem faced by researchers while working towards efficient

computational systems is the need to model inherent uncertainty, imprecision and
partial information in the computational problem itself. The methods developed in
this context, broadly known as reasoning under uncertainty or approximate rea-
soning or imprecise reasoning, bring about a significant paradigm shift, which
reflected the remarkable reasoning ability of the human mind for information
processing and analysis which is often better than present day computers. In this
context only the idea of Soft computing emerged whose guiding principle is
exploiting tolerance for imprecision, uncertainty, partial truth, and approximation to
achieve tractability, robustness and low solution cost. Traditionally, the major
ingredients of Soft Computing include fuzzy logic, neuro-computing and proba-
bilistic reasoning. More recently we have genetic algorithms, belief networks,
chaotic systems and many more added up.
As the role model for this type of reasoning is the human mind and the fact that
human reasoning is not crisp and admits degrees. Obviously, fuzzy logic and fuzzy
set theory introduced by Zadeh play a major role in soft computing. Owing to the
fact that there are limitations of fuzzy set theory such as non-clarity in assigning
membership values, lack of parameterization techniques, soft techniques should
have the freedom to draw ideas from other generalizations of sets like rough sets,
multisets, soft sets, etc., and potential hybridization among these. Among these,
rough set theory is well developed and applications of rough sets in soft computing
are well explored. But other structures like multisets, soft sets, fuzzy multisets,
fuzzy soft sets, etc., are still in developing stages and their applications in various
soft computing scenarios need to be explored.
The development of soft set theory by Molodtsov in 1999 is significant in this
context. Taking the advantage of parameterization technique, soft set theory
evolved as a powerful tool for decision making in information systems, data mining
and reasoning from data, especially when uncertainty is involved. Before the
effective utilization of any mathematical technique for real life applications, it is
desirable to have a strong theoretical support of the developed concepts. Apart from
the basic operations and notions that are relevant in the context, structure studies

ix
x Preface

involving algebraic, topological and lattice theoretic concepts together with pos-
sible hybridization of the novel concept with already existing well established
techniques are also most relevant. This book is a humble attempt towards consol-
idating all these in the context of soft sets. For this, this monograph relies heavily
on many published works of the author, doctoral thesis of author’s students and
works of many other colleagues and researchers in this newly emerging area.
As such, this book contains 6 chapters covering various aspects of soft sets from
theoretical to application problems. Apart from that, a brief historic development of
soft sets and related structures together with some future directions in the devel-
opment of soft set theory and applications is also provided.
Chapter 1 introduces the basic definitions and notions of soft structure. Tabular
representation, operations and many results including analogue of DeMorgan laws
and results involving Cartesian product, relations and functions are provided. The
notions of distance, similarity and entropy also form a part of this chapter. Chapter
concludes with the representation of fuzzy sets, rough sets and topological spaces as
particular types of soft set, justifying the fact that soft set is a generalized tool.
With the intention of enriching the theoretical studies, the algebraic structures of
soft sets are studied in Chap. 2. They include soft groups, normalistic soft groups,
soft BCK/BCI algebras, soft rings and modules and soft lattices.
Topology is a major branch of mathematics with many applications in the fields
of physical and computer sciences. Topological structures on soft sets are more
generalized methods and they can be useful for measuring the similarities and
dissimilarities between the objects in a universe which are soft sets. Chapter 3
discusses two different approaches to soft topology. The basic difference in these
approaches is that one of them considers a subcollection of a set of all soft sets in an
initial universe with a fixed set of parameters and the other one considers a sub-
collection from the set of all soft subsets of a given soft set in a universe. In this
chapter, both approaches are considered with respect to some standard typical
topological notions.
Category theory brings together various branches of mathematics into a united
whole and paves the way to describe and compare objects with similar and different
properties. Chapter 4 is an attempt to accommodate categorical concepts in the
context of soft sets and soft graphs. Further, the relationship between soft sets and
classical information systems is also explored.
A usual practice in applications of uncertainty modelling problems is the
hybridization of existing structures with the intention that the evolving hybrid
structure will have advantages of the constituent ones. Soft sets are also not an
exception and there are many hybrid structures involving soft sets which yielded
better results. Chapter 5 gives a panoramic view of these structures. They include
hybridization including fuzzy sets, intuitionistic fuzzy sets, hesitant fuzzy sets,
rough sets, etc.
In order to justify the relevance and importance of the introduced concepts in
various application scenarios and to show the relationships of soft sets with other
related fields, Chap. 6 discusses various applications of soft sets in many real
Preface xi

problems like decision making, parameter reduction, game theory and studies
involving incomplete data.
The book is primarily designed for scientists, researchers and students working
in the field of soft sets and other related areas like rough sets, fuzzy sets, graph
structures and hybrid models involving them. I sincerely hope that this book will
certainly be an important source for graduate and postgraduate students, teachers
and researchers in colleges/universities in various fields of engineering as well as
mathematics/physics. I believe that with the help of the global reputed nature of the
publisher, the cutting edge ideas consolidated in this book will find ways to create a
stimulating atmosphere for further active development of soft computing techniques
round the globe.

Calicut, India Sunil Jacob John

July 2020
Acknowledgements

I would like to express my deep sense of gratitude to all my co-authors, and

collaborators for their help, suggestion and active participation in developing a
book on Soft sets. Special thanks are due to Prof. Janusz Kacprzyk, the
Editor-in-chief of the book series for the encouragement and the support provided.
I am indebted to Prof. Sivaji Chakravorti, Director, National Institute of
Technology Calicut, India for providing the facilities and kind understanding. My
colleagues at the Department of Mathematics were always a source of inspiration
while the preparation of this title. I sincerely hope that the foreword to the title
provided by Prof. John N. Mordeson will add up to the readability and the
reachability of the book and I am greatly indebted to him.
The timely help and support provided by my postgraduate and doctoral students
were really remarkable. The patience and love of my family members, in particular
my wife Jinta and son Sujin is gratefully appreciated. I am most appreciative of Dr.
Leontina Di Cecco, Ms. Jayarani Premkumar and other personnel of Springer
Nature for their help during the preparation of this book.

xiii
Contents

Part I Historical Perspective of Soft Sets

1 Soft Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1 Basic Definitions and Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1.1 Tabular Representation of a Soft Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2 Operations of Soft Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2.1 De Morgan Laws . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.3 Cartesian Product, Relations and Partitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.3.1 Soft Set Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.3.2 Induced Relations from Universal Set
and the Attribute Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.3.3 Equivalence Relations and Partitions on Soft Sets . . . . . . . 15
1.3.4 Kernels of Soft Set Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
1.3.5 Closures of Soft Set Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
1.3.6 Orderings on Soft Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
1.4 Soft Mappings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
1.5 Distance and Similarity Measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
1.5.1 Similarity Measure of Two Soft Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
1.5.2 Distances Between Soft Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
1.5.3 Distance Based Similarity Measure of Soft Sets . . . . . . . . . 31
1.6 Softness of Soft Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
1.7 Representations of Fuzzy Sets, Rough Sets and Topological
Spaces as Soft Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
1.7.1 Fuzzy Sets as Soft Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
1.7.2 Topological Spaces as Soft Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
1.7.3 Rough Sets as Soft Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

xv
xvi Contents

2 Algebraic Structures of Soft Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

2.1 Soft Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
2.1.1 Normalistic Soft Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
2.2 Soft BCK/BCI-Algebras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
2.3 Soft Rings and Ideals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
2.3.1 Idealistic Soft Rings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
2.4 Soft Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
2.5 Soft Lattice Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
2.5.1 DeMorgan’s Laws in Soft Lattices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
2.5.2 Properties of Soft Lattice Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
3 Topological Structures of Soft Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
3.1 Soft Topological Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
3.2 Closure, Interior, Boundary and Limit Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
3.3 Separation Axioms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
3.4 Continuous Mappings and Connectedness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
3.5 Another Approach to Soft Topology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
3.5.1 Continuous Soft Set Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
3.5.2 Soft Compactness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
3.6 Soft Topologies Generated by Soft Set Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
4 Soft Graphs, Soft Categories and Information Systems . . . . . . . . . . 117
4.1 Soft Relations and Equivalence Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
4.1.1 Soft Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
4.1.2 Soft Partitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
4.2 Soft Graphs and Chained Soft Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
4.2.1 Soft Relation on a Soft Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
4.2.2 Soft Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
4.2.3 Operations on Soft Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
4.3 Chained Soft Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
4.4 Category of Soft Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
4.4.1 Basic Notions of Category Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
4.4.2 Objects in Category Sset(U) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
4.4.3 Morphisms in Sset(U) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
4.4.4 General Properties of the Category of Soft Sets . . . . . . . . . 150
4.5 Category of Soft Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
4.5.1 General Properties of the Category of Soft Graphs,
SGr(U) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
4.5.2 Existence of an Adjoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
4.6 Relationships of Soft Sets with Information Systems . . . . . . . . . . 167
5 Hybrid Structures Involving Soft Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
5.1 Fuzzy Soft Sets and Soft Fuzzy Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
5.1.1 Fuzzy Soft Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
5.1.2 Soft Fuzzy Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Contents xvii

5.2 Intuitionistic Fuzzy Soft Sets and Soft Intuitionistic

Fuzzy Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
5.2.1 Intuitionistic Fuzzy Soft Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
5.2.2 Soft Intuitionistic Fuzzy Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
5.3 Hesitant Fuzzy Soft Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
5.4 Soft Rough Sets and Rough Soft Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
5.4.1 Soft Rough Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
5.4.2 Modified Soft Rough Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
5.4.3 Rough Soft Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
6 Applications and Future Directions of Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
6.1 Parameter Reduction and Decision Making Problems . . . . . . . . . . 195
6.1.1 A Decision Making Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
6.1.2 Parameterization Reduction of Soft Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
6.1.3 Parameter Reduction of Soft Sets by Means
of Attribute Reductions in Information Systems . . . . . . . . . 202
6.2 Medical and Financial Diagnosis Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
6.3 Soft Sets in Game Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
6.3.1 Two Person Soft Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
6.3.2 An Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
6.4 Soft Matrix Theory and Decision Making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
6.4.1 Soft Matrices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
6.4.2 Products of Soft Matrices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
6.4.3 Soft Max
Min Decision Making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
6.5 Soft Sets in Incomplete Information Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
6.5.1 Algorithm for Data Filling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
6.6 Future Directions of Research and Developments
in Soft Set Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
6.6.1 Background of Soft Computing Technology . . . . . . . . . . . 232
6.6.2 Current Status of Soft Set Theory Research . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
6.6.3 Some Future Directions of Research in Soft Set
Theory Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Acronyms

ar(R) Anti-reflexive kernel of R

Cov(U) Set of all coverings of the universe U
CS(U) Set of all covering type soft sets over U
F(XY) Family of all fuzzy relationships from X to Y
F(U) Set of all fuzzy subsets of U
FS(U) Set of all fuzzy soft sets over U
Fset Category of fuzzy sets
Grp Category of groups
HFE Hesitant fuzzy element
HFS Hesitant fuzzy set
e ðUÞ
H Set of all hesitant fuzzy sets in U
IFS(U) Intuitionistic fuzzy power set of U
PAS(U) Set of all Pawlak approximation spaces
Par(U) Set of all partitions of the universe U
P(U) Power set of U
PS(U) Set of all partition type soft sets over U
prðf A Þ Set of all parameter reductions of soft set ðF; AÞ
RED(P) Family of all reductions of P
Rþ Set of all non-negative real numbers
radM Jacobson radical of module
Set Category of sets
SGr(U) Category of soft graphs over U
S(P) Strength of path P
SM mn Set of all m  n soft matrices over U
SMMDM Soft max-max decision making
SMmDM Soft max-min decision making
SmMDM Soft min-max decision making
SmmDM Soft min-min decision making
SSR(F,A) Collection of all soft set relations defined on (F,A)
Sset(U) Category of soft sets over U

xix
xx Acronyms

SL ðEÞ Family of all soft lattices over a lattice L with parameter set E
s(R) Symmetric kernel of R
SðUÞE Family of all soft sets over U with parameter set E
soc(M) Socle of module
Vec Category of vector spaces
 Part I
Historical Perspective of Soft Sets

Introduction of fuzzy set theory by Zadeh [161] in 1965 by giving room for partial
membership for better handling practical situations made a paradigm shift in math-
ematics. The rationale behind this idea was the need of modelling imprecise human
knowledge. The diffusion of this concept to various applied sciences and industry
was rapid and Zadeh himself contributed much for this. This was followed by many
successful generalizations of fuzzy sets and literature is abundant on these. These
generalizations include L-fuzzy sets by Goguen [47], intuitionistic fuzzy sets by
Atanassov [11], type two fuzzy sets [163], bipolar fuzzy sets [166], hesitant fuzzy
sets by Torra [144], pythagorean fuzzy sets [159], picture fuzzy sets [35], spherical
fuzzy sets [71], fermatean fuzzy sets [123] and many more. Apart from these another
set of generalized structures useful for approximate reasoning was also developed
parallel mostly in a complementary manner to fuzzy set theory. They include rough
sets by Pawlak [98], multisets by Yager [158], genuine sets by Demirci et al. [37],
neutrosophic and plithogenic logic by Smarandache [121], multiple sets by Shijina
et al. [128, 129] etc.
Molodtsov developed soft set theory in a fundamentally different perspective.
The application of this theory can be used for meaningfully interpreting real life
problems in pure and applied sciences involving imprecise data. Current studies
shows that ambiguities in data mining problems can also be solved using soft set
theory techniques. The soft set theory could be used to interrogate and extend the
idea of probability, fuzzy set, rough set and intuitionistic fuzzy set further. The
disadvantage of lack of parameterization tool related to the concepts mentioned
above gave a higher realm to soft set theory. In short, unlimited nature of approximate
description is the greatest advantage of soft set theory.
While pondering over difficulties related to modelling uncertainties, eighteenth
century mathematicians identified probability theory as a solution, which addressed
uncertainty via randomness. The prominence of this was unchallenged till mid-
twentieth century. In 1965, Zadeh [161] introduced fuzzy sets for addressing impreci-
sion comprehensively. He expressed fuzziness via partial membership of an element
in a set. Basically a fuzzy set can be identified with a class fitted with an ordering
for elements which expresses the more or less belongingness of them in to that class
under consideration.
2 Historical Perspective of Soft Sets

In contrast to Aristotelian classical bi-valued logic, Polish mathematician Jan

Lukasiewicz (1878–1956) introduced three-valued logic. Lukasiewicz is regarded as
the main founder and contributor of multi-valued logic, which was later extended by
Zadeh to fuzzy or infinite valued logic. In fuzzy logic, reasoning of false and truth are
considered in a graded fashion but in classical logic absolutely true or false statements
only are considered. Fuzzy logic can be considered as a branch of multi-valued logic
based on the paradigm of inference under vagueness. Further, the introduction of
fuzzy sets led to the development of many hybrid mathematical structures also.
By employing the notion of an equivalence relation called indiscernibility relation,
Pawlak [98] in 1982 brought in theory of rough sets by means of lower and upper
approximations and boundary region of a set. Lower approximation consists of all
elements which surely belongs to the concepts and upper approximation consists of
all elements which possibly belongs to the concepts. The difference of lower and
upper approximations is the boundary region. If boundary is empty then set is crisp,
otherwise it is rough. One benefit of the rough set theory is that it does not require
any additional parameter or details regarding the data to extract information.
In 1994 Pawlak [101] published a paper titled “Hard and soft sets", in which he
used a unified approach by taking ideas from classical set theory, rough sets and
fuzzy sets for representing soft sets. Motivated by this work, D. Molodtsov [89] in
1999 published the paper titled “Soft set theory: first results", which is considered
as the origin of theory of soft sets. Apart from the basic notions of the theory, some
of its possible applications and some problems of the future research directions are
also discussed in this paper. This theory was further solidified by P. K. Maji et al.
[81] in 2003 by defining some fundamentals of the theory such as equality of two
soft sets, subset and super set of a soft set etc. As continuation of these ideas, many
extensions, hybridizations and extensions were put forward by many authors, some
of them are the following: Maji, Biswas and Roy [79] introduced fuzzy soft sets,
Wang, Li and Chen [148] introduced hesitant fuzzy soft sets and Pei and Miao [103]
explore the relationship between fuzzy soft sets and classical information systems.
The theory of soft sets is still developing very rapidly both in theoretical as well as
application perspectives.
The never ending probe of researchers for better and better modeling of uncer-
tainty, ambiguity and vagueness may add more and more structures similar to soft
sets which will more specifically and accurately solve many problems of real world.
The relevance of soft sets in this context is always worth mentioning.
Chapter 1
Soft Sets

The aim of introducing a soft structure over a set is to make a certain discretization
of such fundamental mathematical concepts with effectively continuous nature and
thus providing new tools for the use of the technology of mathematical analysis in
real applications involving uncertainty or imperfect data. This is achieved through
a certain parameterization of a given set. As usual, this new perspective of ideas
draw attention of both pure and applied mathematicians and researchers in many
related areas as well. Specifically, the specialists found the concept of a soft set
well coordinated with many other modern mathematical concepts such as fuzzy sets,
rough sets and many more. Further, this resulted in a series of works where soft
versions of mathematical concepts were realized.

1.1 Basic Definitions and Examples

A soft set gives an approximate description of an object under consideration in two

precise parts, namely predicate and approximate value set. Classical Mathematics
always need exact solutions to mathematical models. Increasing level of complexity
or complications in model makes it difficult to get exact solutions and one may go
for approximate solutions and there are many methods for this. On the other hand,
in soft set theory as the initial description of object itself is of approximate nature,
we need not have to introduce the concept of exact solution.
Soft set theory, which was introduced by Russian researcher Molodtsov [88] in
1999 is a completely generic mathematical tool for modeling uncertainties. There
is no condition imposed on the description of objects; so researchers can choose
any form of parameters they needed, which greatly simplifies the decision-making
process and make the process more efficient and reliable in the presence of partial

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license 3
to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
S. J. John, Soft Sets, Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing 400,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57654-7_1
4 1 Soft Sets

information. There are many techniques available for modeling real world complex
systems, such as the classical probability theory, fuzzy set theory introduced by Zadeh
[160], interval mathematics [61, 96, 135] etc. Major drawback of all these techniques
is the lack of parameterization of the tools and hence they could not be applied
successfully in tackling problems especially in areas like economics, environmental
and social sciences. Soft set theory is relatively free from the difficulties associated
with above mentioned techniques and has a wider scope for many applications in a
multidimensional way.
In this section basic definitions, an example and a tabular representation as intro-
duced by Molodtsov [88], Maji et al. [80], and Babitha and Sunil [15] are mentioned.

Definition 1.1 Let U be an initial universe set and E be a set of parameters. Let
P(U ) denotes the power set of U and A ⊂ E. A pair (F, A) is called a soft set over
U , where F is a mapping given by F : A → P(U ).
In other words, a soft set over U is a parameterized family of subsets of the universe
U . For  ∈ A, F() may be considered as the set of -approximate elements of the
soft set (F, A).

Example 1 Let U be a set of all students under consideration. E is a set of parame-

ters. Each parameter can be a word or sentence. E = {brilliant, average, healthy}.
In this case, we can define a soft set (F, A) to point out the Nature of students
as follows: Suppose that there are six students in the universe U given by U =
{x1 , x2 , , x3 , x4 , x5 , x6 } and E = {e1 , e2 , e3 } where e1 stands for brilliant, e2 stands
for average and e3 stands for healthy. The soft set (F, A) where A = E defined as
F(e1 ) = {x1 , x2 , , x5 }, F(e2 ) = {x3 , x4 , x6 }, F(e3 ) = {x1 , x4 , x5 , x6 } gives the soft
set representing the nature of students. The soft set (F, E) is a parametrized family
{F(ei ) : i = 1, 2, 3} of subsets of the set U and gives us a collection of approximate
descriptions of an object.
Here note that for each e ∈ E, F(e) is a crisp set. So the soft set (F, A) is called
a standard soft set.

1.1.1 Tabular Representation of a Soft Set

For the purpose of storing a soft sets in computers, one may need the representation
 in the form of a matrix or a table. The (i, j)th entry in table
of a soft set
1 if xi ∈ F(e j )
ti, j =
0 otherwise
With reference to Example 1 given above, the tabular representation of the soft set
is given Table 1.1.
1.2 Operations of Soft Sets 5

Table 1.1 Tabular Representation of the soft set in Example 1

U↓ e1 (brilliant) e2 (average) e3 (healthy)
x1 1 0 1
x2 1 0 0
x3 0 1 0
x4 0 1 1
x5 1 0 1
x6 0 1 1

1.2 Operations of Soft Sets

Various operations analogous to union, intersection, complement, difference etc. in

set theory will be discussed in the context of soft sets. Definitions and results given
in this section are due to [7, 15, 80, 123].
Definition 1.2 For two soft sets (F, A) and (G, B) over a common universe U , we
say that (F, A) is a soft subset of (G, B) if
(i) A ⊆ B, and
(ii) ∀ ∈ A, F() and G() are identical approximations.
We write (F, A)⊆ (G, B).
(F, A) is said to be a soft super set of (G, B), if (G, B) is a soft subset of (F, A).
We denote it by (F, A)⊇ (G, B)).
Two soft sets (F, A) and (G, B) over a common universe U are said to be soft
equal if (F, A) is a soft subset of (G, B) and (G, B) is a soft subset of (F, A).
Definition of soft subset can be modified with replacing condition (ii) in Definition
1.2 “F() and G() are identical approximations” by “F() ⊆ G()”.
Definition 1.3 Let E = {e1 , e2 , e3 , .., en } be a set of parameters. The NOT set of E
denoted by ¬E is defined by ¬E = {¬e1 , ¬e2 , ¬e3 , .., ¬en } where ¬ei = not ei ∀i.

Definition 1.4 The complement of a soft set (F, A) is denoted by (F, A)c and is
defined by (F, A)c = (F c , ¬A) where F c : ¬A → P(U ) is a mapping given by
F c (¬α) = U − F(α), ∀¬α ∈ ¬A.
We call F c to be the soft complement function of F. Clearly (F c )c is the same as
F and ((F, A)c )c = (F, A). It is also known as neg-complement as F c is defined on
the NOT set of the parameter set.

Definition 1.5 Let U be an initial universe set, E be the set of parameters, and
A ⊂ E.
(i) (F, A) is said to be a relative null soft set (with respect to the parameter set A),
denoted by  A , if ∀ ∈ A, F() = φ, (null-set).
6 1 Soft Sets

(ii) (F, A) is said to be a relative whole soft set (with respect to the parameter set
A), denoted by UA , if ∀ ∈ A, F() = U .
 E is called the null soft set
The relative null soft set with respect to E denoted by 
over U .
E is called the absolute
The relative whole soft set with respect to E denoted by U
soft set over U .
Definition 1.6 The relative complement of a soft set (F, A) is denoted by (F, A)r
or (F, A) and is defined by (F, A)r = (F r , A) where F r : A → P(U ) is a mapping
given by F r (α) = U − F(α), ∀α ∈ A.
Clearly, we have the following propositions.
Proposition 1.1 If A and B are two sets of parameters then we have the following:
(i) ¬(¬A) = A
(ii) ¬(A ∪ B) = (¬A) ∪ (¬B)
(iii) ¬(A ∩ B) = (¬A) ∩ (¬B)
Proposition 1.2 Let U be a universe, E a set of parameters, A, B, C ⊂ E. If (F, A),
(G, B) and (H, C) are soft sets over U , Then
U
(i) (F, A)⊆ A .
 
(ii)  A ⊆(F, A).
(F, A).
(iii) (F, A)⊆

(iv) (F, A)⊆(G, B), (G, B)⊆ (H, C) implies (F, A)⊆ (H, C).
(v) (F, A) = (G, B) and (G, B) = (H, C) implies (F, A) = (H, C).
Definition 1.7 The union of two soft sets (F, A) and (G, B) over the common
U is a soft set (H, C), where C = A ∪ B and for each e ∈ C,
universe ⎧
⎪
⎨ F(e), if e ∈ A − B
H (e) = G(e), if e ∈ B − A .
⎪
⎩
F(e) ∪ G(e), if e ∈ A ∩ B
We write (F, A)
∪(G, B) = (H, C),
Definition 1.8 The intersection of two soft sets (F, A) and (G, B) over the common
universe U is a soft set (H, C), where C = A ∩ B, and H (e) = F(e) ∩ G(e), ∀e ∈ C.
We write (F, A)
∩(G, B) = (H, C).
Definition 1.9 Let (F, A) and (G, B) be soft sets over a common universe U
such that A ∩ B = φ. Then the restricted union of (F, A) and (G, B) denoted by
(F, A) ∪ R (G, B) and is defined as (F, A) ∪ R (G, B) = (H, C) where C = A ∩ B
and for all c ∈ C, H (c) = F(c) ∪ G(c).
Definition 1.10 Extended intersection of two soft sets (F, A) and (G, B) over the
⎧ A) ∩ E (G, B) and is the soft set (H, C), where
common universe U , denoted by (F,
⎪
⎨ F(e), if e ∈ A − B
C = A ∪ B, and ∀e ∈ C, H (e) = G(e), if e ∈ B − A .
⎪
⎩
F(e) ∩ G(e), if e ∈ A ∩ B
1.2 Operations of Soft Sets 7

Definition 1.11 Let (F, A) and (G, B) be soft sets over a common universe U such
that A ∩ B = φ. Then the restricted difference of (F, A) and (G, B) denoted by
(F, A) R̃ (G, B) and is defined as (F, A) R̃ (G, B) = (H, C) where C = A ∩ B and
∀c ∈ C, H (c) = F(c) − G(c), the difference of the sets F(c) and H (c).

Definition 1.12 If (F, A) and (G, B) are soft sets over a common universe U , then
(F, A)AN D(G, B) denoted by (F, A) ∧ (G, B) is defined as (F, A) ∧ (G, B) =
(H, A × B) where H (a, b) = F(a) ∩ G(b) for every (a, b) ∈ A × B.

Definition 1.13 If (F, A) and (G, B) are soft sets over a common universe U ,
then (F, A)O R(G, B) denoted by (F, A) ∨ (G, B) is defined as (F, A) ∨ (G, B) =
(K , A × B) where K (a, b) = F(a) ∪ G(b) for every (a, b) ∈ A × B.

For soft sets (F, A), (G, B) and (H, C) over the same universe U with A, B, C
subsets of the parameter set E, the following theorems hold:
Theorem 1.1 Properties of union operation
(a) (F, A)∪((G, B)∪(H, C)) = ((F, A) ∪(G, B))∪(H, C)
(b) (F, A)∪UA = U
A , (F, A) E = U
∪U E , (F, A) A = (F, A)
∪
(c) (F, A) need not be a soft subset of (F, A) (G, B), then
∪(G, B). But if (F, A)⊂
(F, A)
(F, A)⊂ ∪(G, B), moreover (F, A) = (F, A) ∪(G, B)
(d) (F, A)∪(G, A) =   A and (G, A) = 
 A if and only if (F, A) =  A
(e) (F, A)∪((G, B)∩(H, C)) = ((F, A) ∪(G, B))∩((F, A)
∪(H, C))
(f) ((F, A)
∩(G, B))∪(H, C) = ((F, A) ∪(H, C))∩((G, B)∪(H, C))

Proof Proof of (a), (b), (e) and (f) are straight forward and follows easily from
definitions.
⎧ A)
(c) Let (F, ∪(G, B) = (H, C) where C = A ∪ B and
⎨ F(e) if e ∈ A − B
H (e) = G(e) if e ∈ B − A .
⎩
F(e) ∪ G(e) if e ∈ A ∩ B
It is obvious that if e ∈ A ∩ B, then H (e) = F(e) ∪ G(e), thus F(e) and H (e)
need not be the same approximations. Thus (F, A) need not be a soft subset of
(F, A) ∪(G, B).
Now let (F, A)⊂ (G, B). Then, it is clear that A ⊂ A ∪ B = A. We need to show
that F(e) and H (e) are the same approximations for all e ∈ A. Let e ∈ A, then
e ∈ A ∩ B = A, since A ⊂ B implies A − B = φ. Thus, H (e) = F(e) ∪ G(e) =
F(e) ∪ F(e) = F(e), as G(e) and F(e) are the same approximations for all e ∈ A.
This follows that H and F are the same set-valued mapping for all e ∈ A, as required.
(d) Suppose that (F, A) ∪(G, A) = (H, A), where H (x) = F(x) ∪ G(x) for all
x ∈ A. Since (H, A) =   A from the assumption, H (x) = F(x) ∪ G(x) = φ ⇔
F(x) = φ and G(x) = φ ⇔ (F, A) =   A and (G, A) =   A for all x ∈ A. Now
  
assume that (F, A) =  A and (G, A) =  A and (F, A)∪(G, A) = (H, A). Since
F(x) = φ and G(x) = φ for all x ∈ A, H (x) = F(x) ∪ G(x) = φ for all x ∈ A.
Therefore, (F, A) ∪(G, A) =   A. 

Theorem 1.2 Properties of restricted union operation

8 1 Soft Sets

(a) (F, A) ∪ R (G, B) ∪ R (H, C) = (F, A) ∪ R (G, B) ∪ R (H, C).

(b) (F, A) ∪ R UA = U A , (F, A) ∪ R U A , (F, A) ∪ R 
E = U  A = (F, A).,
 E = (F, A)
(F, A) ∪ R 
(c) (F, A)  (F, A) ∪ R (G, B), in general. But if (F, A)⊂ (G, B), then (F, A)⊂

(F, A) ∪ R (G, B), moreover (F, A) = (F, A) ∪ R (G, B)
(d) (F, A) ∪ R (G, A) =   A ⇔ (F, A) =  A and (G, A) =  A
(e) (F, A) ∪ R ((G, B) ∩(H, C)) = (F, A) ∪ R (G, B) ∩((F, A) ∪ R (H, C)
∩(G, B)) ∪R (H, C) = ((F, A) ∪R (H, C)) 
(f) ((F, A) ∩((G, B) ∪R (H, C))
(g) (F, A) ∪R ((G, B) ∩ E (H, C)) = (F, A) ∪R (G, B) ∩ E (F, A) ∪R (H, C)
(h) ((F, A) ∩ E (G, B)) ∪R (H, C) = (F, A) ∪R (H, C) ∩ E (G, B) ∪R (H, C)

Proof (a) First, we investigate the left-hand side of the equality. Suppose that
(G, B) ∪ R (H, C) = (T, B ∩ C), where T (x) = G(x) ∪ H (x) for all x ∈ B ∩ C =
φ. And assume (F, A) ∪R (T, B ∩ C) = (W, A ∩ (B ∩ C)), where W (x) = F(x) ∪
T (x) = F(x) ∪ (G(x) ∪ H (x)) for all x ∈ A ∩ (B ∩ C) = φ.
Now consider the right-hand side of the equality. Suppose that (F, A) ∪R
(G, B) = (M, A ∩ B), where M(x) = F(x) ∪ G(x) for all x ∈ A ∩ B = φ · And
let (M, A ∩ B) ∪R (H, C) = (N , (A ∩ B) ∩ C), where N (x) = M(x) ∪ H (x) =
(F(x) ∪ G(x)) ∪ H (x) for all x ∈ (A ∩ B) ∩ C = φ. Since W and N are the same
mapping for all x ∈ A ∩ (B ∩ C) = (A ∩ B) ∩ C, the proof is completed.
(b) Proof of (b) follows directly from the definitions.
(c) Since A  A ∩ B without any extra condition being given, (F, A)  (F, A)
∪R (G, B) in general. Now assume that (F, A) is a soft subset of (G, B) and
(F, A) ∪R (G, B) = (H, A ∩ B = C), where H (x) = F(x) ∪ G(x) for all x ∈ C.
Then,
(F, A)⊂ (G, B) ⇔ A ⊂ A ∩ B = A and F(e) and G(e) are the same approxima-
tions for all e ∈ A ⇔ H (e) = F(e) ∪ G(e) = F(e) ∪ F(e) = F(e) for all e ∈ A.
Thus, F and H are the same set-valued mapping for all e ∈ A, so the proof is com-
pleted.
(d) Proof follows from the fact that (F, A) ∪R (G, A) = (F, A)  ∪ (G, A)) and
Theorem 1.1(d).
(e) First, we handle the left-hand side of the equality. Suppose that (G, B) ∩
(H, C) = (T, B ∩ C), where T (x) = G(x) ∩ H (x) for all x ∈ B ∩ C. Let (F, A)
∪R (T, B ∩ C) = (W, A ∩ (B ∩ C)), where W (x) = F(x) ∪ T (x) = F(x)
∪ (G(x) ∩ H (x)) for all x ∈ (A ∩ B) ∩ C.
Now consider the right-hand side of the equality. Assume that (F, A) ∪R (G, B) =
(M, A ∩ B), where M(x) = F(x) ∪ G(x) for all x ∈ A ∩ B = φ. And let (F, A) ∪R
(H, C) = (N , A ∩ C), where N (x) = F(x) ∪ H (x) for all x ∈ A ∩ C = φ. Sup-
pose that (M, A ∩ B) ∩(N , B ∩ C) = (K , (A ∩ B) ∩ (A ∩ C)) = (K , (A ∩ B)
∩ C), where K (x) = M(x) ∩ N (x) = (F(x) ∪ G(x)) ∩ (F(x) ∪ H (x)) = F(x)
∪(G(x) ∩ H (x)) for all x ∈ (A ∩ B) ∩ C. Since W and K are the same set-valued
mapping, the proof is completed.
(f) By similar techniques used to prove (e), (f) can be illustrated, and is therefore
omitted.
(g) Suppose that (G, B) ∩ E (H, C) = (T, B ∪ C), where
1.2 Operations of Soft Sets 9
⎧
⎨ G(e) if e ∈ B − C
T (e) = H (e) if e ∈ C − B
⎩
G(e) ∩ H (e) if e ∈ B ∩ C
Assume that (F, A) ∪ R (T, B ∪ C) = (M, A ∩ (B ∪ C)), where M(x) = F(x) ∪
T (x) for all x ∈ A ∩ (B ∪ C). By taking into account the properties of operations in
set theory and the definitions of M along with T and considering that T is a piecewise
function, we⎧can write the below equalities for M:
⎨ F(e) ∪ G(e) if e ∈ A ∩ (B − C) = (A ∩ B) − (A ∩ C)
M(e) = F(e) ∪ H (e) if e ∈ A ∩ (C − B) = (A ∩ C) − (A ∩ B)
⎩
F(e) ∪ (G(e) ∩ H (e)) if e ∈ A ∩ (B ∩ C)
for all e ∈ A ∩ (B ∪ C).
Now consider the right-hand side of the equality. Suppose that (F, A) ∪R
(G, B) = (Q, A ∩ B), where Q(x) = F(x) ∪ G(x) for all x ∈ A ∩ B = φ. Assume
(F, A) ∪R (H, C) = (W, A ∩ C), where W (x) = F(x) ∪ H (x) for all x ∈ A ∩
C = φ. Let⎧ (Q, A ∩ B) ∩ E (W, A ∩ C) = (N , (A ∩ B) ∪ (A ∩ C)), where
⎨ Q(e) if e ∈ (A ∩ B) − (A ∩ C)
N (e) = W (e) if e ∈ (A ∩ C) − (A ∩ B)
⎩
Q(e) ∩ W (e) if e ∈ (A ∩ B) ∩ (A ∩ C) = A ∩ (B ∩ C)
for all x ∈ (A ∩ B) ∪ (A ∩ C). By taking into account the definitions of Q and W,
⎧ N as below:
we can rewrite
⎨ F(e) ∪ G(e) if e ∈ (A ∩ B) − (A ∩ C)
N (e) = F(e) ∪ H (e) if e ∈ (A ∩ C) − (A ∩ B)
⎩
(F(e) ∪ G(e)) ∩ (F(e) ∪ H (e)) if e ∈ A ∩ (B ∩ C)
This follows that N and M are the same set-valued mapping when considering the
properties of operations on set theory, which completes the proof.
(h) By similar techniques used to prove (g), (h) can be illustrated, and is therefore
omitted. 
Similar theorems follow for extended intersection and intersection also. Proofs are
in similar lines and hence omitted.
Theorem 1.3 Properties of extended intersection operation
(a) (F, A) ∩ E ((G, B) ∩ E (H, C)) = ((F, A) ∩ E (G, B)) ∩ E (H, C)
A = (F, A), (F, A) ∩ E 
(b) (F, A) ∩ E U A = A
 (G, B), then (F, A) ∩ E
(c) (F, A) ∩ E (G, B)(G, B), in general. But if (F, A)⊂

(G, B)⊂(G, B), moreover (F, A) ∩ E (G, B) = (G, B)
(d) (F, A) ∩ E ((G, B) ∪R (H, C)) = ((F, A) ∩ E (G, B)) ∪R ((F, A) ∩ E (H, C))
(e) ((F, A) ∪R (G, B)) ∩ E (H, C) = ((F, A) ∩ E (H, C)) ∪R ((G, B)
∩ E (H, C))
Theorem 1.4 Properties of intersection operation
(a) (F, A)
∩((G, B)
∩(H, C)) =((F, A) ∩(G, B))∩(H, C)
  
(b) (F, A)∩U A = (F, A), (F, A)∩U E = (F, A), (F, A)
 A = 
∩  A , (F, A) ∩ 
E

= A
(c) (F, A) 
∩(G, B)(F, A), in general. But if (F, A)⊂ (G, B), then (F, A)

∩(G, B)⊂(F, A) moreover (F, A)
∩(G, B) = (F, A).
10 1 Soft Sets

(d) (F, A)

∩ ((G, B) ∪R (H, C)) = ((F, A)
∩(G, B)) ∪R ((F, A)
∩(H, C))
(e) ((F, A) ∪R (G, B)) 
∩(H, C) = ((F, A)
∩(H, C)) ∪R ((G, B)
∩(H, C))
(f) (F, A)
∩((G, B)∪(H, C)) = ((F, A)
∩(G, B))
∪((F, A)
∩(H, C))
(g) ((F, A)
∪(G, B))∩(H, C) = ((F, A)
∩(H, C))
∪((G, B)∩(H, C))
(h) ∩ ((G, B) ∼R (H, C)) =((F, A)
(F, A) ∩(G, B)) ∼R ((F, A)
∩(H, C))
(i) ((F, A) ∼R (G, B)) 
∩(H, C) = ((F, A)
∩(H, C)) ∼R ((G, B)∩(H, C))
Proposition 1.3 Let (F, A) be a soft set over U . Then we have the following;
(i) (F, A)∪(F, A)r = (F, A) ∪ R (F, A)r = U A
(ii) (F, A) ∩ E (F, A)r = (F, A)
∩(F, A)r =  A
E )r = 
(iii) (U A )r = 
 E , (U A
Proof Obvious. 

1.2.1 De Morgan Laws

In this sub section, we show that the following De Morgan’s type of results hold in
soft set theory for different types of union, intersection, complements, AND and OR
operations. Results given in this section are taken from Ali et al. [7] , Maji et al. [80]
and Sezgin et al. [123].
Let (F, A) and (G, B) be two soft sets over a common universe U . Then we have
the following:
Theorem 1.5 (De Morgan laws with respect to relative complement, restricted union
and intersection)
(a) [(F, A) ∪ R (G, B)]r = (F, A)r 
∩(G, B)r

(b) [(F, A)∩(G, B)] = (F, A) ∪ R (G, B)r
r r

Proof (a) Let (F, A)∪ R (G, B) = (H, C) where H (c) = F(c) ∪ G(c) for all c ∈
C = A ∩ B = ∅. Since ((F, A) ∪ R (G, B))r = (H, C)r , by definition H r (c) = U −
[F(c) ∪ G(c)] = [U − F(c)] ∩ [U − G(c)] for all c ∈ C.
Now (F, A)r ∩(G, B)r = (F r , A) 
∩(G r , B) = (K , C) where C = A ∩ B. So by
definition, we have,

K (c) = F r (c) ∩ G r (c)

.
= (U − F(c)) ∩ (U − G(c))
= H r (c)∀c ∈ C
Hence [(F, A) ∪ R (G, B)]r = (F, A)r ∩(G, B)r .

(b) Let (F, A)∩(G, B) = (H, C) where H (c) = F(c) ∩ G(c) for all c ∈ C =
A ∩ B = ∅. Since ((F, A) ∩(G, B))r = (H, C)r , by definition H r (c) = U − (F(c)
∩ G(c)) = [U − F(c)] ∪ [U − G(c)] for all c ∈ C. Now (F, A)r ∪ R (G, B)r =
(F r , A) ∪ R (G r , B) = (K , C) where C = A ∩ B. So by definition, we have K (c) =
F r (c) ∪ G r (c) = (U − F(c)) ∪ (U − G(c)) = H r (c) for all c ∈ C. Hence
[(F, A) ∩(G, B)]r = (F, A)r  ∪ R (G, B)r . 
1.2 Operations of Soft Sets 11

Theorem 1.6 (De Morgan laws with respect to extended intersection, union and
neg-complement)
(a) [(F, A) ∩ E (G, B)]C = (F, A)C 
∪(G, B)C
(b) [(F, A)
∪(G, B)] = (F, A) ∩ E (G, B)C
C C

Proof (a) Suppose that (F, A) ∩ E (G, B) = (H, A ∪ B). Then

((F, A) ∩ E (G, B))C = (H, A ∪ B)c = (H c , (A ∪ B)) = (H c , A∪B) where
H c (e) = U − H (e) for all
⎧ e ∈A∪B.
⎨ F(e), if e ∈ A − B
By definition, H (e) = G(e), if e ∈ B − A
⎩
F(e) ∩ G(e), if e ∈ A ∩ B
⎧
⎪
⎨U \F(e) = F (e), i f e ∈A−B
c

Thus we have H (e) = U \G(e) = G c (e), i f e ∈B−A

c
⎪
⎩
U \(F(e) ∩ G(e)) = F c (e) ∪ G c (e), i f e ∈A∩B
⎧ A) 
Moreover, let (F, ∪(G, B)c = (F c ,  A)
∪ (G c ,  B) = (K , A∪B).
c

⎪
⎨ F (e), i f e ∈A−B
c

Then K (e) = G c (e), i f e ∈B−A

⎪
⎩ c
F (e) ∪ G c (e), i f e ∈A∩B
c
Since H and K are indeed the same set-valued mapping, we conclude that
((F, A) ∩ E (G, B))c = (F, A)c ∪(G, B)c as required.
(b) By using a similar technique, part (b) can be proved. 

Theorem 1.7 (De Morgan laws with respect to AND, OR, and neg complement)

(a) [(F, A) ∨ (G, B)]C = (F, A)C ∧ (G, B)C

(b) [(F, A) ∧ (G, B)]C = (F, A)C ∨ (G, B)C

Proof (a) Suppose that (F, A) ∨ (G, B) = (O, A × B). Therefore,

((F, A) ∨ (G, B))c = (O, A
 c × B) c
= (O c , (A × B)). Now
(F, A) ∧ (G, B) = F , A) ∧ G c , B)
c c

= (J, A×B), where J (x, y) = F c (x) ∩ G c (y)

= (J, (A × B)
Now, take (α, β) ∈(A × B). Therefore,
O c (α, β) = U − O(α, β)
= U − [F(α ∪ G(β)]
= [U − F(α)] ∩ [U − G(β)]
= F c (α) ∩ G c (β)
= J (α, β)
Thus O c and J are same. Hence, proved.
(b) By using a similar technique, part (b) can be proved. 

Theorem 1.8 (De Morgan laws with respect to AND, OR, and relative complement)
12 1 Soft Sets

(a) [(F, A) ∨ (G, B)]r = (F, A)r ∧ (G, B)r

(b) [(F, A) ∧ (G, B)]r = (F, A)r ∨ (G, B)r

Proof (a) Suppose that (F, A) ∨ (G, B) = (O, A × B). Therefore,

((F, A) ∨ (G, B))r = (O, A × B)r = (O r , A × B) . Now, (F, A)r ∧ (G, B)r =
(F r , A) ∧ (G r , B) , = (J, A × B), where J (x, y) = F r (x) ∩G r (y). Let (α, β) ∈
A × B. Then, O r (α, β) = U \O(α, β) = U \[F(α) ∪ G(β)]= [U \F(α)] ∩ [U \
G(β)]= F r (α) ∩ G r (β) = J (α, β). Since O r and J are indeed the same set-valued
mapping, ((F, A) ∨ (G, B))r = (F, A)r ∧ (G, B)r .
(b) By using a similar technique, part (b) can be proved. 

In most of the studies related to algebraic and topological structures, we often need
to handle indexed family of entities. Feng et al. [41] gives various union, intersection
and/or operations for indexed families of soft sets.
Definition 1.14 Let (Fi , Ai )i∈l be a nonempty family of soft sets over a common uni-
verse U. The union of these soft sets is defined to be the soft set (G, B) such that B =
i∈I Ai and, for all x ∈ B, G(x) = i∈I (x) Fi (x), where I (x) = {i ∈ I |x ∈ Ai }. In

this case, we write i∈I (Fi , Ai ) = (G, B).

Definition 1.15 Let (Fi , Ai )i∈I be a nonempty family of soft sets over a common
universe set U . The AN D- soft set 
∧i∈I (Fi , Ai ) of these soft sets is defined to be the
soft set (H, B) such that B = i∈I Ai and H (x) = i∈I Fi (xi ) for all x = (xi )i∈I ∈
B.

Definition 1.16 Let (Fi , Ai )i∈I be a nonempty family of soft sets over a common
universe set U . The O R- soft set 
∨i∈I (Fi , Ai ) of these soft sets is defined to be the soft
set (H, B) such that B = i∈I Ai and H (x) = i∈I Fi (xi ) for all x = (xi )i∈I ∈ B.

Note that, if Ai = A and Fi = F for all i ∈ I, then  ∧i∈I (Fi , Ai ) (respectively,

∨i∈I (Fi , Ai )) is denoted by 
 ∧i∈I (F, A) (respectively, 
∨i∈l (F, A)). In this case,
iel Ai =
I
i∈l A means the direct power A .

Definition 1.17 The restricted union of a nonempty family of soft sets (Fi , Ai )i∈I
over a common universe set U is defined as the soft set (H, B) = Ri∈I (Fi , Ai )
where B = i∈I Ai = ∅ and H (x) = i∈I Fi (x) for all x ∈ B.

Definition 1.18 The extended intersection of a nonempty family of soft sets

(Fi , Ai )i∈I over a common universe set U is defined as the soft set (H, B) =
Ei∈I (Fi , Ai ) such that such that B = i∈I Ai and H (x) = i∈I (x) Fi (x), where
I (x) = {i ∈ I |x ∈ Ai } for all x ∈ B.

Definition 1.19 Let (Fi , Ai )i∈l be a nonempty family of soft sets over a common
universe U. The intersection of these soft sets is defined to be the soft set (G, B)
such that B =  i∈I Ai = ∅ and, for all x ∈ B, G(x) = i∈I Fi (x). In this case, we
write  i∈I (Fi , Ai ) = (G, B).
Exploring the Variety of Random
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 "I believe you," said the Count, "on my honour, I believe you; and
De Retz was too hasty in even calling you indiscreet; for your
conduct towards our friend Jean le Hableur proves sufficiently that
you can keep counsel. Your history has interested me more than I
will tell you at present. I feel for all you have suffered, and I would
not for the world barter that power of feeling for others, against the
most tranquil stoicism. Sympathy, however, though always agreeable
to him that excites it, is little pleasing to him who feels it, without he
can follow it up by some service to the person by whom it has been
awakened. I will try whether that cannot be the case with you;--but
you are tired with your long journey, and the night wears. Ho,
without there! send Monsieur de Varicarville hither. We will talk more
to-morrow, Monsieur de l'Orme, since such is the name you choose."

I rose to depart, but at the same time one of the gentlemen

whom I had seen in the outer chamber, conversing while the rest
were gaming, entered, and the Count introduced me to him, begging
him to show me all kindness and attention, as a person whom he
himself esteemed and loved.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

The manners of Monsieur de Varicarville were at once simple and

elegant--there was none of the superfluous hyperbole of courts;
there was little even of the common exaggeration of society, in
anything he said. He neither expressed himself ravished to make my
acquaintance, nor delighted to see me; all he said was, that he
would do everything that depended upon him, to make me
comfortable during my stay at Sedan. And thus I always found him
afterwards--neither what is in general called blunt, which is more
frequently rude, nor what is usually called polite, which is in general
hollow. He had too much kindness of heart ever to offend, and too
much sincerity ever to flatter. But the goodness of his disposition,
and the native grace of his demeanour, gave, conjoined, that real
bienséance, of which courtly politeness is but an unsubstantial
shadow. Poor Varicarville! I owe thee such a tribute, best and most
excellent of friends! And though no epitaph hangs upon the tomb
where thou sleepest, in the hearts of all who knew thee thy memory
is treasured and beloved.

After a few words of kindness, and having received the note

addressed to him from the Abbé de Retz, he gave me into the hands
of the Count's maître d'hôtel, telling him that I was the gentleman
who had been so long expected; and desiring him to see that I
wanted nothing, till such time as I was sufficiently familiarized with
the place and its customs to take care of myself. He then left me,
and I was conducted to a neat chamber with an anteroom,
containing three truckle beds for lackeys, a small writing or dressing
cabinet, and several other conveniences, which I had hardly
expected in a castle so completely full as the citadel of Sedan
appeared to be. Before the maître d'hôtel left me, I requested that
my horses might be taken care of, and that my servant might be
sent to me, hinting at the same time, that if he brought me a cup of
wine and something to eat, I should not at all object, as I had tasted
nothing all day except a wing of the capon which Achilles had carried
off from Verdun. My little attendant soon appeared, loaded with a
great many more provisions than I needed, and congratulating both
himself and me upon our sudden transposition from Paris, and the
meagre diet we had there observed, to such a land of corn, wine,
and oil.

While I was undressing, some thoughts would fain have intruded,

which I was very sure would have broken up my rest for the night.
The agitation of being in new, strange scenes, acting with people of
whom I yet knew hardly anything, and involved in schemes which at
best were hazardous, was quite enough to make sleep difficult, and I
felt very certain, that if I let my mind rest one moment on the
thought of Helen, and of the circumstances in which she might at
that moment be placed, all hope of repose--mental repose, at least--
was gone--and where is any exercise so exhausting to the body, as
that anxious occupation of the mind? The next morning I was hardly
awake, when Monsieur de Varicarville entered my chamber, and
informed me that Monsieur le Comte wished to see me; and dressing
myself as fast as possible, I hurried to the Prince's apartments,
where I found him still in bed. Varicarville left us, and the Count
made me sit down by his bedside.

"I have been thinking, De l'Orme," said he, "over the history you
gave me last night, and I again assure you that I sympathize not a
little with you. I am much older than you, and the first hasty torrent
of passion has passed away at my time of life; but I can still feel,
and know, that love such as you profess towards this young lady,
whom your mother has educated, is not a passion easily to be
rooted out. Nor is the death of her brother by your hand an
insurmountable obstacle. She evidently does not know it herself; and
it would be a cruel piece of delicacy in you either to let her know it,
or to sacrifice both her happiness and your own for such a scruple."

The picture of Helen in the arms of her brother's murderer, and

the horror she would feel at his every caress, if she did but know
that he was so, rose up frightfully before my imagination, as the
Count spoke; and, without replying, I covered my eyes with my
hands, as if to shut the image out.

"This is an age, Monsieur de l'Orme," said the Count, "in which

few people would suffer, as you seem to do, for having shed their
fellow-creature's blood; and yet, I would not have you feel less. Feel,
if you will, but still govern your feelings. Every one in this world has
much to suffer; the point of wisdom is to suffer well. But think over
what I have said. Time may soon bring about a change in the face of
affairs. If fortune smiles upon me, I shall soon have the power of
doing greater things than obtaining letters of nobility for your fair
lady's father. Thus the only substantial objection to your marriage
will be removed. From what you said of the house where you last
saw her, and the liveries of the servants, it must have been the hotel
of the Maréchal de Chatillon; and the youth whose conversation you
overheard was probably his nephew; but fear not for that. He is a
hair-brained youth, little capable of winning the heart of a person
such as you describe. The only thing that surprises me is, that
Arnault, her father, should have acquired any degree of intimacy
with so proud a man as Chatillon; but that very circumstance will be
some excuse for asking nobility for him; and the favour will come
with the more grace, as Chatillon is somewhat a personal enemy of
my own."

I thanked the Prince for his kind intentions, though I saw no great
likelihood of their fulfilment, and fancied that, like the cottager in the
fairy tale, Monsieur le Comte imagined himself a great conqueror,
and gave away crowns and sceptres, though he had not two roods
of land himself. But I was mistaken: the Count's expectations were
much more likely to be accomplished than I had supposed, as I soon
perceived, when he began to explain to me his views and situation.

When a man's mind is in doubt upon any subject, and he has

heard reiterated a thousand times the various reasonings of his
friends, without being able to choose his part determinately, it is
wonderful with what eagerness he seeks for any new opinion to put
him out of suspense--the most painful situation in which the human
mind can remain. Thus the Count de Soissons, after having
entertained me shortly with my own affairs, entered full career upon
his; and briefly touching upon the causes which originally compelled
him to quit the court of France, and retire to Sedan, he proceeded:--

"Here I would willingly have remained quiet and tranquil, till the
course of time brought some change. I neither sought to return to a
court where the king was no longer sovereign, nor to cabal against
the power of a minister upheld by the weakness of the monarch. All
I required was to be left at peace in this asylum, where I could be
free from the insult and degradation which had been offered me at
the court of France. I felt that I was sufficiently upholding the rights
and privileges which had been transmitted to me by my ancestors,
and maintaining the general cause of the nobility of France, by
submitting to a voluntary exile, rather than yield to the ambitious
pretensions of a misproud minister; and nothing would have induced
me to raise the standard of civil war, even though the king's own
good was to be obtained thereby, if Richelieu had but been content
to abstain from persecuting me in my retirement. Not the
persuasions of the Dukes of Vendome and La Valette, nor the
entreaties of my best friend the Duke of Bouillon, nor the promises
and seductions of the house of Austria, would have had any effect,
had I been left at peace: but no! never for a day has the cardinal
ceased to use every measure in his power to drive me to revolt. The
truth is this: he calculates upon the death of my cousin Louis, and
upon seizing on the regency during the dauphin's minority. He knows
that there is no one who could and would oppose him but myself.
The Duke of Orleans is hated and despised throughout France--the
house of Condé is bound to the cardinal by alliance. He knows that
he could not for a moment stand against me, without the king's
support and authority; and he has resolved to ruin me while that
support still lasts. For this purpose, he at one time offers me the
command of one of the armies, that I may return and fall into his
power; he at another threatens to treat me as a rebel and a traitor.
He now proposes to me, a prince of the blood royal of France, a
marriage with his upstart niece; and then menaces me with
confiscation and attainder; while at the same time my friends on
every side press me to shake off what they call apathy--to give my
banner to the wind, and, marching upon Paris, to deliver the
country, the king, and myself, of this nightmare cardinal, who sits a
foul incubus upon the bosom of the state, and troubles its repose
with black and frightful dreams."

As he went on, I could see that Monsieur le Comte worked

himself up with his own words to no small pitch of wrath; calling to
mind, one by one, the insults and injuries that the cardinal had
heaped upon him, till all his slumbering anger woke up at once, and
with a flashing eye, he added, "And so I will. By Heaven! I will hurl
him from his usurped seat, and put an end to this tyranny, which has
lasted too long." But very soon after, relapsing again into his
irresolution, he asked, "What think you, Monsieur de l'Orme? Should
I not be justified? Am I not called upon so to do?"

"I would pray your Highness," replied I, "not to make me a judge

in so difficult a point; I am too young and inexperienced to offer an
opinion where such great interests are concerned."

"Fie, fie!" cried he with a smile; "you, who have already acted the
conspicuous part of member of the insurrectionary council of
Catalonia! We are all inexperienced, in comparison with you.--Tell
me, what had I better do?"

"If I must give an opinion, monseigneur," I replied, "I think you

had better endure as long as you can, so as to leave no doubt in
your own eyes--in those of France--in those of the world--that you
are compelled to draw the sword for the defence of your own
honour, and for the freedom of your country. But once having drawn
the sword, cast away the scabbard."

"Then I am afraid the sword is half drawn already," said the

Count. "There are eight thousand armed men in Sedan. Fresh troops
are pouring in upon me every day. The news has gone abroad that I
am about to take the field; and volunteers are flocking from every
quarter to my standard. Yesterday, I had letters from at least sixty
different parts of France, assuring me that, one battle gained, but to
confirm the fearful minds of the populace, and that scarce a
province will refrain from taking arms in my cause. De Retz is in
hopes even of securing the Bastile; and he has already, with that
fine art which you have remarked in him, bound to my cause
thousands of those persons in the capital who in popular tumults,
guide and govern the multitude. I mean the higher class of paupers-
-the well-educated, the well-dressed, sometimes even the well-born,
who are paupers the more, because they have more wants than the
ostensible beggar; these De Retz has found out in thousands, has
visited them in private, relieved their wants, soothed their pride,
familiarized himself with their habits and wishes, and, in short, has
raised up a party for me which almost insures me the capital."

This last part of the Count's speech instantly let me into the
secret of Monsieur de Retz's first visit to me. My good landlady's
tongue had probably not been idle concerning what she conceived
my necessitous situation; and, upon the alert for all such cases of
what Monsieur le Comte called higher pauperism, De Retz had lost
no time in seeking to gain me, as he had probably gained many
others, by a display of well-timed and discriminating charity.

God knows, I was not a man to look upon wealth and splendour
as a virtue in others, nor to regard misfortune and poverty as a vice;
and yet, with one of those contradictory weaknesses with which
human nature swarms, I felt inexpressibly hurt and mortified at
having been taken for a beggar myself.

Monsieur le Comte saw a sudden flush mount up into my cheek,

and judging from his own great and noble heart, he mistook the
cause. "I see what you think, Monsieur de l'Orme," said he; "you
judge it mean to work with such tools; but you are wrong. In such
an enterprise as this, it is my duty to my country to use every
means, to employ all measures, to insure that great and decisive
preponderance, which will bring about success, without any long
protracted and sanguinary struggle."

I assured him that I agreed with him perfectly, and that I

entertained no such thoughts as he suspected. "So far from it,"
replied I, "that if your highness will point out to me any service I can
render you, be it of the same kind you have just mentioned, or not,
you will find me ready to obey you therein, with as much zeal as
Monsieur de Retz."
 "There is a candour about you, my good De l'Orme," replied the
Count, "which I could not doubt for a moment, if I would: but what
would all my sage counsellors say--the suspicious Bouillon, the
obdurate Bardouville--if I were to intrust missions of such
importance to one of whom I know so little?--one who, they might
say, was only instigated to seek me by a temporary neglect of
Richelieu, and who would easily be led to join the other party, by
favour and preferment?"

"I am not one to commit such treachery, my lord," replied I,

hastily. "I am ready to swear before God, upon his holy altar, neither
to abandon nor betray your Highness.

"Nay, nay," said the Count de Soissons, smiling at my heat,

"swear not, my dear count! Unhappily, in our days, the atmosphere
which surrounds that holy altar you speak of, is so thick with
perjuries, that an honest man can hardly breathe therein. I doubt
you not, De l'Orme; your word is as good to me as if you swore a
thousand oaths; and I am much inclined to give you a commission of
some importance, both because I know I can rely upon your wit and
your honour, and because your person is not so well known in Paris
as the other gentlemen of my household. But to return to what we
were saying; still give me your opinion about drawing the sword, as
you have termed it; ought I, or ought I not?"

"By my faith, your Highness," replied I, "I think it is drawn

already, as you yourself have admitted."

"Not so decidedly," answered the Count, "but that it can be

sheathed again; and if this cardinal, alarmed at these preparations,
as I know he is, will but yield such terms of compromise as may
insure my own safety and that of my companions, permit the
thousands of exiles who are longing for their native country to
return, and secure the freedom and the peace of France, far, far be
it from me ever to shed one drop of Gallic blood."
 "But does not your highness still continue your preparations,
then?" demanded I.

"Most assuredly," replied the Count. "The matter must come to a

conclusion speedily, either by a negotiation and treaty, which will
insure us our demands, or by force of arms; and therefore it is well
to be prepared for the latter, though most willing to embrace the
former alternative."

"And does the minister seem inclined to treat?" asked I.

"He always pretends that he is so," replied Monsieur de Soissons.

"But who can judge of what his inclinations are by what he says? his
whole life is a vizard--as hollow--as false--as unlike the real face of
the man. We all know how negotiations can be protracted; and he
has used every means to keep this in suspense till he could free
himself from other embarrassments. He asked our demands, and
then misunderstood them; and then required a fuller interpretation
of particular parts; and then mistook the explanation--then let a
month or two slip by; and then again required to know our
demands, as if he had never heard them; and then began over again
the same endless train of irritating delay. But, however, there is one
of our demands which we will never relinquish, and which he will
never grant, except he be compelled, which is the solemn
condemnation and relinquishment of all special commissions."

"I am not very well aware of the meaning of that term," said I:
"may I crave your highness to explain it to me?"

"I do not wonder at your not knowing it," answered the Count: "it
is an iniquity of his own invention, totally unknown to the laws of
France. When any one was accused of a crime formerly, the
established authorities of the part of the country in which it was
averred to have been committed took cognisance of the matter, and
the accused was tried before the usual judges; but now, on the
contrary, on any such accusation, this cardinal issues his special
commission to various judges named by himself, uniformly his most
devoted creatures, and often the personal enemies of the accused.
Under such an abuse, who can escape? False accusers can always
be procured; and where the judges are baser still, justice is out of
the question. The law of France is no longer administered, but the
personal resentments of Richelieu."

The conversation continued for some time in the same course,

and turned but little to the advantage of the minister. The Count de
Soissons had real and serious cause of indignation against Richelieu,
on his own account; and this made him see all the public crimes of
that great but cruel and vindictive minister in the most unfavourable
light. The stimulus of neglect had, in my mind, also excited feelings
which made me lend an attentive ear to the grievances and wrongs
that the prince was not slow in urging, and my blood rose warmly
against the tyranny which had driven so many of the great and
noble from their country, and spilt the most generous blood in
France upon the scaffold.

I have through life seen self-interest and private pique bias the
judgment of the wisest and the best intentioned; and I never yet in
all the wide world met with a man who, in judging of circumstances
wherein he himself was any way involved, did not suffer himself to
be prejudiced by one personal feeling or another. The most despotic
lords of their own passions have always some favourite that governs
them themselves. Far be it from me, then, to say, I was not very
willing and easy to be convinced that the man who had neglected
me had also abused his power, tyrannized over his fellow-subjects,
and wronged both his king and his country. I was in the heat of
youth, soon prepossessed, and already prejudiced; and whatever I
might think afterwards, I, at the moment, looked upon the
enterprise which was contemplated by Monsieur le Comte as one of
the most noble and justifiable that had ever been undertaken to free
one's native country from a tyrant.
 There was also in the manners of the Count de Soissons that
inexpressible charm which leaves the judgment hardly free. It is
impossible to say exactly in what it consisted. I have seen many men
with the same princely air and demeanour, and with the same
suavity of manner, who did not in the least possess that sort of
fascination which, like the cestus of the goddess, won all hearts for
him that was endowed with it. I was not the only one that felt the
charm. Everybody that surrounded the prince--everybody that, in
any degree, came in contact with him, were all affected alike
towards him. Even the common multitude experienced the same;
and the shouts with which the populace of Paris greeted his
appearance on some day of ceremony, are said to have been the
first cause of the Cardinal's jealous persecution of him. One saw a
fine and noble spirit, a generous and feeling heart shining through
manners that were at once dignified while they were affable, and
warm though polished; and it might be the conviction of his internal
rectitude, and his perfect sincerity, which added the master-spell to
a demeanour eminently graceful. Whatever it was, the fascination on
my mind was complete; and I hardly know what I would have
refused to undertake in the service of such a prince. At the end of
our conversation, scarcely knowing that I did so, I could not help
comparing in my own mind my present interview with the Count de
Soissons, and that which I had formerly had with the Cardinal de
Richelieu; and how strange was the difference of my feelings at the
end of each! I left the minister, cold, dissatisfied, dispirited; and I
quitted the Count de Soissons with every hope and every wish
ardent in his favour; with all my best feelings devoted to his service,
and my own expectations of the future raised and expanded by my
communion with him, like a flower blown fully out by the influence
of a genial day of summer.

On leaving the Count's apartments, I passed through a room in

which I found Monsieur de Varicarville with several other gentlemen,
to whom he introduced me; and we then proceeded to the grand
hall of the château, where we were met by the personal suite of the
Duke of Bouillon, who divided the interior of the citadel equally with
his princely guest. The duke had this morning made some twinges of
the gout an excuse for taking his breakfast with the Duchess in his
own apartment, and the Count did so habitually; but for the rest of
the party, two long tables were spread, each containing fifty covers,
which were not long in finding employers. The table soon groaned
with the breakfast, and every one drew his knife and fell to, with the
more speed, as it had been announced that the tilt-yard of the castle
would be open at eight of the clock, to such as chose to run at the
ring. After which there would be a course des têtes. Neither of these
exercises I had ever seen, and consequently was not a little eager
for the conclusion of the meal, although I could but hope to be a
spectator.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

Immediately after breakfast I returned to the apartments of the

Count de Soissons, to attend him with the rest of his suite to the tilt-
yard; and in a few minutes after was called to his chamber by his
valet. I found him already dressed, and prepared to take his share in
the sports. He was fitting himself with a right-hand glove of strong
buff leather, which covered his arm to the elbow, and in regard to
the exact proportions of which, he seemed as curious as a young
lordling of a new pourpoint.

"What, De l'Orme," cried he, "not gloved! You can never hold your
lance without such a supplementary skin as this. Choose one from
this heap; and see that the flap fall clear over the inner part of your
fore-arm."
 I endeavoured to excuse myself, by informing his highness that I
was quite unused to such exercises; but he would not hear of my
being merely a spectator, and replied, laughing--"Nonsense,
nonsense! I must see how you ride, and how you use your sword, to
know whether I can give you a regiment of cavalry with safety. Ho,
Gouvion! order Monsieur de l'Orme's horse to be saddled instantly!"

There was of course no way of opposing the Count's command;

and though I was very much afraid that I should do myself no great
credit, I was obliged to submit, and accompanied Monsieur le Comte
to the little court at the foot of the staircase, with somewhat nervous
feelings at the idea of exhibiting myself before two or three hundred
people, in exercises which I had never even seen. I had quite
sufficient vanity to be timid, where failure implied the slightest touch
of ridicule.

The tilt-yard consisted of a large piece of level ground, within the

walls, of perhaps a couple of acres in extent, the centre of which
was enclosed with barriers surrounding an oblong space of about
two hundred feet in length by fifty in breadth.

The distance was so small from the court before the Count's
apartments to the barriers, that he had sent on the horses, and
walked thither, followed by myself and about a dozen other
gentlemen of his suite. As we approached, the people who had
assembled to witness the exercises, and amongst whom were a
number of soldiers, received the Count with a shout sufficiently
indicative of his popularity, and separating respectfully as he
advanced, permitted him to meet a small knot of the more
distinguished exiles, who had flocked to his standard at the first
report of his having determined to take arms against the cardinal.

The Count proceeded onward, bowing to the people in recognition

of their welcome, with that bland smile which sits so gracefully on
the lips of the great; and then advancing with somewhat of a
quicker step, as he perceived the group of nobles I have mentioned
hurrying to meet him, he spoke to them all, but selected two for
more particular attention. The first was a man of about fifty; and,
after I had heard him named as the Duke of Vendome, I fancied I
could discover in his face a strong likeness to the busts of Henri
Quatre. The second was the Duke of Bouillon; and certainly never
did I behold a countenance which, without being at all handsome,
possessed so pre-eminently intellectual an expression. To me it was
not pleasing, nor was it what is called shrewd--nay, nor thoughtful;
and yet it was all mind--mind quick to perceive, and strong to repel,
and steady to retain, and bold to uphold. The whole was more
impressive than agreeable, and gave the idea of all the impulses
springing from the brain, and none arising in the heart.

After he had returned the embrace of the Count de Soissons, his

quick dark eye instantly glanced to me with an inquiring look.

The Prince saw and interpreted his glance; and making me a sign
to advance, he introduced me to his ally as Louis Count de l'Orme,
only son of the noble house of Bigorre, and first gentleman of his
bedchamber. The Duke bowed low, and, with what I judged rather
an unnecessary ostentation of politeness, welcomed me to Sedan;
while the Count, with a smile that seemed to imply that he read
clearly what was passing in his friend's mind, said in a low tone, "Do
not be afraid, Bouillon: if he is not for you, he is not against you."

"He that is not for me," replied the Duke of Bouillon, with that
irreverent use of scriptural expressions which was so common in
those days--"he that is not for me is against me. I love not neutrals.
Give me the man who has spirit enough to take some determinate
side, and support it with his whole soul."

All the blood in my body, I believe, found its way up into my

cheek; but I remained silent; and the Count, seeing that Monsieur
de Bouillon was in an irritable mood, and judging that I was not of a
disposition patiently to bear many such taunts as he had most
undeservedly launched at me, led the way to the barriers.
 Monsieur de Riquemont, the Count's chief ecuyer, having been
appointed mestre de camp for the time, opened the barriers and
entered the field first, followed by a crowd of valets and estaffiers,
carrying in a number of lances and pasteboard blocks, made to
represent the heads of Moors and Saracens, which were deposited in
the middle of the field. The Prince then mounted his horse, and
followed by the Dukes of Bouillon, Vendôme, and La Valette, rode
through the barrier, turning to me as he did so, and calling me to
keep near him.

I instantly sprang upon my horse, which little Achilles held ready

for me, and galloped after the count. All those whose rank entitled
them to pass did the same. A certain number of grooms and lackeys
also were admitted, to hold the horses, amongst whom Achilles
contrived to place himself; and the barriers being closed, the rest of
the people ranged themselves without, which was indeed the best
situation for viewing the exercises.

At about two-thirds of the course from the entrance, raised above

one of the posts which upheld the wooden railing of the enclosure,
was a high pillar of wood, with a cross-bar at the top, in form of a
gallows, and which was in fact called la potence. From this was
suspended a ring, hanging about a foot below the beam; and,
during the course, one of the Prince's domestics was mounted on
the barrier, supporting himself by the pillar of wood, to ascertain
precisely whether those who missed hitting the inside of the ring,
and so carrying it away, might not touch its edge, which was
counted as an inferior point.

The mestre de camp now arranged us in the order in which we

were to run, and I was glad to find that I should be preceded by five
cavaliers, from each of whom I hoped to receive a lesson. The
Prince, of course, took the lead; and I observed that a great deal of
dexterity was necessary to couch the lance with grace and ease.
After pausing for a moment with the lance erect, he made a demi-
volte, and, gradually dropping the point, brought his elbow slowly to
his side; while putting his horse into a canter, and then into a gallop,
he kept the point of the weapon steadily above the right ear of his
horse, exactly on a line with his own forehead, till coming near the
pillar with his charger at full speed, he struck the ring and bore it
away. The marker now cried loudly, "Un dedans! un dedans!" and
some of the estaffiers ran to place another ring.

In the mean while, amidst the applauses which multitudes always

so unscrupulously bestow upon success, the count, without looking
behind, rode round the field, slowly raising the point of his lance, on
which he still bore the ring he had carried away. The Duke of
Bouillon, notwithstanding his gout, proceeded next to the course;
and, without taking any great pains respecting the grace of his
movements, aimed his lance steadily, and carried away the ring. The
Duke of Vendôme had declined running; and Monsieur de la Valette,
though managing his horse and his lance with the most exquisite
grace, passed the ring without hitting it at all. De Varicarville missed
the centre, but struck it on the outside, when the marker cried
loudly, "Une atteinte! line atteinte!" and the Marquis de Bardouville,
who, like a great many other very hard-headed men, was famous for
such exercises, spurred on and carried it away like lightning.

It now became my turn; and I will own that I wished myself

anywhere in the wide world but there. However, there was no
remedy; and I was very sure that, though I might not be able to
carry away, or even touch the ring, I could manage my horse as well
as any man in the field. But I had forgotten, that to every such
compact as that between a man and his horse, there are two
parties, both of whom must be in perfect good humour. The roan
horse which had borne me from Paris was an excellent strong
roadster, and sufficiently well broke for all common purposes; but for
such exercises as those in which both he and his master were so
unwillingly engaged, he had no taste whatever. It was with the
greatest difficulty, therefore, that I compelled him to make his demi-
volte, before beginning the course. This accomplished, he galloped
on steadily enough towards the pillar; but, just at the moment that I
was aiming my lance to the best of my power, the potence, the ring,
and the man standing on the railing, all seemed to catch his sight at
once; and thinking it something very extraordinary, and not at all
pleasant, he started sideways from the course, and dashed into the
very centre of the field, scattering the estaffiers and valets like a
flock of sheep, and treading upon the pasteboard heads of Moors
and Turks with most pitiless precipitation. Spurs and bridle were all
in vain; I might as well have spurred a church-steeple; and, in the
end, down he came upon his haunches in the most ungraceful
posture in the world, while a loud shout of laughter from the Duke of
Bouillon and several others, announced that my misfortune had not
afforded the smallest part of the morning's amusement.

God forgive me! I certainly could have committed more than one
murder in the height of my wrath; and, digging my spurs into my
horse's sides with most unjustifiable passion, till the blood streamed
from them, I forced him up, and rode round to the spot where the
Duke of Bouillon stood, with intentions which I had luckily time to
moderate before I arrived.

I passed on, therefore, to the Count de Soissons, merely giving

the duke a glance as I passed, in which he might well read what was
passing in my heart. He returned it with a cold stare, and then
turned to Bardouville with a sneering smile, which had nearly driven
me mad.

"Your Highness sees," said I, as I came near the Count, "the

unfortunate issue of my attempt to give you pleasure. Perhaps you
will now condescend to excuse my farther exposing myself to the
laughter of Monsieur de Bouillon and his friends."

"Fie! you are angry, my dear De l'Orme," replied the Count, with a
degree of good humour I hardly deserved. "I will certainly not
excuse you going on with the exercises. You managed that horse as
well as such a horse could possibly be managed; and a great deal
better than any of the laughers would have done: but, though a
good strong beast, he is not fit for such games as these; and,
therefore, as soon as I saw him start, I sent one of my grooms for a
managed horse of my own, that has a mouth like velvet, and will
obey the least touch of the leg. Mount, my good De l'Orme, and
shame these merry fools, by showing them some better
horsemanship than they can practise themselves."

The Count then, turning to the rest, kindly amused a few

moments in conversation, till such time as he saw his groom trotting
down the beautiful charger he proposed to lend me. I made a sign
to Achilles to hold the horse I was upon; and alighting, the moment
the other passed the barrier, I laid my hand lightly on his shoulder,
and sprang into the saddle without touching the stirrup. The courses
recommenced, and Monsieur le Comte again carried away the ring:
not so the Duke of Bouillon, who merely touched it on the outer
edge. The Duke de la Valette also gained an atteinte; and both
Varicarville and Bardouville carried it away.

As may be supposed, I had watched narrowly every motion of the

other cavaliers; and had remarked, and endeavoured to appropriate,
all that sat gracefully upon them. Habituated from my infancy to
almost every other corporeal exercise and game, I found no great
difficulty in acquiring this; and mounted as I was upon a horse that
seemed almost instinctively to know its rider's will, and obey it, I had
every advantage. The noble animal performed his demi-volte with
the utmost grace and precision; and now, finding by the very touch
of the bridle that I had a different creature to deal with, I easily
balanced the lance, as I had seen the Count de Soissons, kept the
point over my horse's right ear, and, somewhat imitating the
swiftness with which De Bardouville had run his course, I galloped
on at full speed, struck the ring right in the centre, and bore it away
at once.

The feelings of a multitude, unlike the feelings of most

individuals, do not seem mixed and blended with each other, but
each appears separate and distinct, reigns its moment, and then
gives way to another, like the passions of an ardent and hasty man;
and this, probably, because the sensations of all the parts of the
crowd act in the aggregate, while any counteracting principle is
confined to one or two, and does not appear. Thus the spectators
outside the barriers, who had laughed with the Duke of Bouillon at
my former failure, were as ready to triumph with me, as over me,
and greeted my success with a loud shout; while suddenly bringing
my horse into a walk, I proceeded round the field, slowly raising my
lance with the ring still upon the point.

The Count de Soissons fixed his eyes upon me, and gave me a
glance expressive of as much pleasure as if he had been the person
interested; while the Duke of Bouillon looked on with an air of the
most perfect indifference, and talked aloud with Bardouville upon the
pleasures of a barbecued pig. Mixed feelings of indignation and
triumph excited me to a pitch of exertion which brought with it
greater success than I could have expected. I again carried away the
ring; and, at the end of the third course, found myself only exceeded
in the number of points I had made by the Count de Soissons, who
had carried the ring twice, and struck it once.

The different pasteboard heads were now placed in the positions

assigned for them; and the Count de Soissons, who generously
entered into all my feelings, and saw that anger had made success a
matter of importance to me, now beckoning me to him, bade me, in
a whisper, to remark well the manœuvres of those who preceded
me; and, above all things, to take care that I neither dropped my
hat, nor withdrew my foot from the stirrup; as, though merely a
matter of etiquette, the course was considered lost by such an
occurrence. I thanked his Highness for his caution; and fixing my hat
more firmly on my head, and myself more steadily in the saddle, I
left him to run his course.

The heads had been placed, at various distances, along the line of
the barriers. One, a most ferocious-looking Saracen, was fixed upon
an iron stand at about one hundred and twenty-feet from the
beginning of the course, and raised about eight feet from the
ground. This was made to turn upon a pivot; and near it, in the
exact centre of the course, was placed a target painted with a head
of Medusa. As soon as all was arranged, the Count couched his
lance and ran full speed at the Saracen; but not being hit exactly in
the centre, the head turned upon its pivot, and the lance passed off.

The Prince, however, rode on; and tossing the lance to an

estaffier who stood ready to catch it, turned with a demi-volte at the
corner, and drawing one of his pistols from the saddle-bow, galloped
towards the Medusa in the centre of the barrier. The crowd on the
outside now ran in every direction; and the Count, discharging his
pistol, hit the face upon the target exactly in the middle of the brow.
Without pausing, he urged his horse forward; and making the same
turn nearly where I stood, he came back upon the head, and fired
his second pistol at it with the same success. He then made a
complete volte, during which he replaced his pistol, drew his sword,
and, galloping past the third head, which was placed upon a little
mound of earth about two feet high, near the opposite barrier, he
gave point with his sword in tierce, struck it on the forehead, and
raising his hand in quarte, held up the head upon his sword's point.

I found that the groom who had brought down the Count's horse
for me had taken care to provide pistols also; and, as the principal
feats in this course were performed with weapons which I was
accustomed to, I did not fear the result. The gentlemen who
preceded me met with various success; but Bardouville, who was
certainly the most stupid of them all in mind, was the most expert in
body, and carried every point. I followed his example, and
succeeded in bearing off the Saracen's head upon the point of my
lance, making both my shots tell upon the head of Medusa, and
bringing up the third head upon the point of my sword.

Accidental, or not accidental, my success changed the posture of

affairs, for the Duke of Bouillon from that moment seemed to regard
me in a very different light from that which he had done at first; and
as we rode out of the barriers, he kept the Prince in close
conversation, which, from the glancing of his eye every now and
then towards me, I could not doubt had some reference to myself.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

On our arrival at the citadel, the two princes separated; and

Monsieur le Comte retired to his own apartments, whither I followed
him in company with the principal officers of his household. As he
passed on into his own saloon, he made me a sign to enter also; and
while a valet pulled off his boots, congratulated me upon my success
in the tilt-yard. "Nor must you be discontented, De l'Orme,"
continued he, "because there was some little pain mingled with the
first of your feats: it rendered your after-triumph the greater."

"Certainly, monseigneur," replied I, "I would rather it had not

happened; but yet, of course, I do not look upon it as any very
serious misfortune."

"And yet," said he, with a smile, "you looked at the time as if you
felt it one. We are apt, my dear Count, to fancy in our youth that the
sweet cup of life has not a drop of bitter; but we all soon discover
that it is not so. With life, as with everything else, we find the bright
and delightful scattered thinly amidst an immensity of baser matter.
Those who seek pearls are obliged to plunge into the deep briny sea
to drag them up, and even then perchance, out of every shell, ten
will be worthless; but did we find pearls hanging amongst grapes, or
diamonds at the roots of roses, we should value neither one nor the
other as they merit. As it is, the threads of pain are woven so
intimately in the web of life, that they form but one piece; and wise
was the hand that ordered it so."

The Count being by this time disembarrassed of his boots, he

dismissed the lackey, and then proceeded: "Now that we are alone,"
said he, "I will give up my homily, for I have other matter to consult
you upon. This morning you said, in speaking of De Retz, that you
would willingly undertake and execute for me any commission
similar to that which he so dexterously exercises. Are you still so
inclined?--Mark me, De l'Orme," he added suddenly, "you are bound
by nothing that you said this morning. Men of a quick and ardent
temperament like yours, are often led from one step to another in
the heat of conversation, till they promise, and feel willing to
perform at the time, many things that, upon mature consideration,
they would be very sorry to undertake. Their feelings go on like the
waves of the sea, each hurrying forward the one before it, till the
ripple becomes a billow that dashes over every obstacle in its way.
Then comes consideration, like the ebb of the tide, and their wishes
flow gradually back, far from the point at which they had arrived at
first. Should this be your case, you are free to retract; and I tell you
beforehand, that the service upon which I would put you is one of
difficulty, and also of some personal danger to yourself."

I replied by assuring the Count that what I had said in my former

conversation with him, unlike most conversations on earth,
contained nothing that I could wish unsaid--that my offer to serve
him had originated in personal attachment, and that of course that
attachment had much increased, instead of diminishing, by all that
had passed during the morning. Danger and difficulty, I farther said,
were hardly to be looked upon as objections, when by encountering
them we could prove our sincerity; and, therefore, that he had
nothing to do but point out the course he wished me to follow, and
he might feel assured I would do so to the best of my abilities.

"Be it so then," replied the Count; "and I entertain no doubt of

either your discretion or success. Before your arrival, I had intrusted
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