136 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 



words. The iiidefiniteness of any idea which vou receive may 

 be the fault of either myself or my messenger, that is, my word. 

 In the sentence ^'The post needs repairing," the word ^^post'' is 

 in a sense indefinite : you do not know whether I mean the Post 

 Office or a hitching post. But my own original idea, though 

 ambiguously expressed by "post," was entirely definite ; and even 

 the ideas, between which you are unable to choose, are entirely 

 definite. Any existing indefiniteness characterizes the symbol 

 and not the symbolized idea. It is better to call such symbols 

 uncertain, ambiguous, or equivocal, reserving the term "indefi- 

 nite" for ideas themselves. 



The indefiniteness of ideas mav be the result of different 



ft/ 



causes. In using the phrase "a group of men," I may be actu- 

 ated by the fact that I do not know their number. Again it 

 may be that what I perfectly know I do not care to tell. 



Such indefiniteness mav also be of different kinds. To il- 

 lustrate, "Something lay in the darkness across my path." This 

 "Something" answers the question "how many ?" That is, it is 

 numerically definite. The question "Of Avhat kind ?" it can- 

 not answer, being valid, for instance, for a stone, a dog, or a 

 fallen tree ; that is, it is categorically indefinite. Xor can it an- 

 swer the question "Which?" for, even if it specially suggested 

 dogs, it would fail to indicate a particular individual ; that is, it 

 is selectively indefinite. "Man" (German) and "on" (French) 

 are categorically definite but indefinite selectively and numeri- 

 cally. The same is true of "Some" in "Some men are vir- 

 tuous." 



Indefiniteness, moreover, varies in degree. "Some," in the 

 notation of logic, is forced to cover every meaning from "one" 

 to "all" inclusive. In actual practice, "some" includes neither 

 "one" nor "all," but may include approximately any other 

 number. "Several" is a good deal more restricted, standing, 

 I should say, for never less than three and, at the most, for 

 less than half of all. "Most" affects the upper; "many," a 

 middle ; and "few," a decidedly lower numerical range. Transi- 

 tions even offer to the exactly definite. In "A dozen sprang 

 to their feet," I should say that eleven and thirteen are contem- 

 plated possibilities. In "Twelve arose," it seems to me that 



