28 



NAMES AND PROPOSITIONS. 



upon them to indicate any qualities, or anything which be 

 longs to them in common ; and cannot be said to be affirmed 

 of them in any sense at all, consequently not in the same 

 sense. &quot; The king who succeeded William the Conqueror,&quot; is 

 also an individual name. For, that there cannot be more than 

 one person of whom it can be truly affirmed, is implied in the 

 meaning of the words. Even &quot; the king,&quot; when the occasion 

 or the context defines the individual of whom it is to be 

 understood, may justly be regarded as an individual name. 



It is not unusual, by way of explaining what is meant by 

 a genera] name, to say that it is the name of a class. But 

 this, though a convenient mode of expression for some pur 

 poses, is objectionable as a definition, since it explains the 

 clearer of two things by the more obscure. It would be more 

 logical to reverse the proposition, and turn it into a definition 

 of the word class: &quot; A class is the indefinite multitude of 

 individuals denoted by a general name.&quot; 



It is necessary to distinguish general from collective 

 names. A general name is one which can be predicated of 

 each individual of a multitude ; a collective name cannot be 

 predicated of each separately, but only of all taken together. 

 &quot; The 76th regiment of foot in the British army,&quot; which is a 

 collective name, is not a general but an individual name ; for 

 though it can be predicated of a multitude of individual 

 soldiers taken jointly, it cannot be predicated of them severally. 

 We may say, Jones is a soldier, and Thompson is a soldier, 

 and Smith is a soldier, but we cannot say, Jones is the 76th 

 regiment, and Thompson is the 76th regiment, and Smith is 

 the 76th regiment. We can only say, Jones, and Thompson, 

 and Smith, and Brown, and so forth (enumerating all the 

 soldiers), are the 76th regiment. 



&quot;The 76th regiment&quot; is a collective name, but not a 

 general one: &quot; a regiment&quot; is both a collective and a general 

 name. General with respect to all individual regiments, of 

 each of which separately it can be affirmed ; collective with 

 respect to the individual soldiers of whom any regiment is 

 composed. 



