Oiuen — Revision of Pronouns. 137 



other numbers are positively excluded. In fact a sufficiently 

 careful examination would doubtless here and there reveal a 

 continuous series of ideas, in which the completest precision 

 of which the mind is capable, would pass by imperceptible 

 gradations into the utmost vagueness. 



To draw a line of satisfactory demarcation between the defi- 

 nite and the indefinite would, accordingly, even in the single 

 case of number, be quite embarrassing. Suppose, however, 

 that such a line be satisfactorily established. Another line 

 must be determined between the definite and the indefinite as to 

 kind; and consistency requires that one such line should, so to 

 speak, be abreast of the other — that both be equally far from 

 the absolutely definite. But who will tell me whether the 

 categorical indefiniteness of ^'something" is equal in degree 

 to the numerical indefiniteness of ^'some" or the selective in- 

 definiteness of '^someone ?" Or how shall I compare the spatial 

 indefiniteness of "somewhere" with the temporal indefiniteness 

 of '"^once upon a time ?" Or what is my common unit for meas- 

 uring the indefiniteness of what I know, as in "Some liked my 

 dinner,'^ and that of what I want to know, as in ''Who are com- 

 ing to dinner ?" 



THEIE SENTEiq^TIAL RANK. 



Their use as nouns appears in the following sentences : ''Peo- 

 ple say one should not praise himself." ''They say much, 

 little^ numbers of things." "For aught I know they say any 

 thing/' "li you don't go it with all your might, it will go hard 

 with you; it is raining already." "^'Who is it?'' (in the phrase- 

 ology of children's games.) Among the virtual indefinite nu- 

 merals I should rank, besides those already noted, flock, bunch, 

 herd, drove, bevy, flight, school, crowd, party, constellation, 

 swarm, shoal, covey, cloud, etc. In the quantitative field I find, 

 beside such definites as inch, foot, yard (linear, square or cu- 

 bic), a throng of indefinites, for instance, mass, batch, heap, 

 deal, lot, morsel, sip, sprinkling, dash, taste, etc. 



Their adjective function, as in "Some animals are men," has 

 been amply illustrated. Of this indefinite adjective plural, the 

 so-called indefinite article is merely the nearest possible singu- 



