THINGS DENOTED BY NAMES. 81 



not, indeed, like a body, excite sensations, but it may excite 

 thoughts or emotions. The most important example of attri 

 butes ascribed on this ground, is the employment of terms ex 

 pressive of approbation or blame. When, for example, we say 

 of any character, or (in other words) of any mind, that it is 

 admirable, we mean that the contemplation of it excites the 

 sentiment of admiration ; and indeed somewhat more, for the 

 word implies that we not only feel admiration, but approve 

 that sentiment in ourselves. In some cases, under the sem 

 blance of a single attribute, two are really predicated : one of 

 them, a state of the mind itself; the other, a state with which 

 other minds are affected by thinking of it. As when we sav 

 of any one that he is generous. The word generosity expresses 

 a certain state of mind, but being a term of praise, it also ex 

 presses that this state of mind excites in us another mental 

 state, called approbation. The assertion made, therefore, is 

 twofold, and of the following purport : Certain feelings form 

 habitually a part of this person s sentient existence ; and the 

 idea of those feelings of his, excites the sentiment of approba 

 tion in ourselves or others. 



As we thus ascribe attributes to minds on the ground of 

 ideas and emotions, so may we to bodies on similar grounds, 

 and not solely on the ground of sensations : as in speaking of 

 the beauty of a statue ; since this attribute is grounded on the 

 peculiar feeling of pleasure which the statue produces in our 

 minds; which is not a sensation, but an emotion. 



VII. GENERAL RESULTS. 



15. Our survey of the varieties of Things which have 

 been, or which are capable of being, named which have been, 

 or are capable of being, either predicated of other Things, 

 or themselves made the subject of predications is now con 

 cluded. 



Our enumeration commenced with Feelings. These we 

 scrupulously distinguished from the objects which excite them, 

 and from the organs by which they are, or may be supposed 

 VOL. i. 6 



