IMPORT OF PROPOSITIONS. 115 



the information they convey is that of its likeness* to the other 

 feelings which we have been accustomed to call by the same 

 name. Thus much may suffice in illustration of the kind of 

 propositions in which the matter-of-fact asserted (or denied) is 

 simple Resemblance. 



Existence, Coexistence, Sequence, Causation, Resemblance : 

 one or other of these is asserted (or denied) in every proposi 

 tion which is not merely verbal. This five-fold division is an 

 exhaustive classification of matters-of-fact ; of all things that 

 can be believed, or tendered for belief; of all questions that 

 can be propounded, and all answers that can be returned to 

 them. Instead of Coexistence and Sequence, we shall some 

 times say, for greater particularity, Order in Place, and Order 

 in Time: Order in Place being the specific mode of coex 

 istence, not necessary to be more particularly analysed here ; 

 while the mere fact of coexistence, or simultaneousness, may 

 be classed, together with Sequence, under the head of Order 

 in Time. 



7. % In the foregoing inquiry into the import of Propo 

 sitions, we have thought it necessary to analyse directly those 

 alone, in which the terms of the proposition (or the predicate 

 at least) are concrete terms. But, in doing so, we have indi 

 rectly analysed those in which the terms are abstract. The 

 distinction between an abstract term and its corresponding 

 concrete, does not turn upon any difference in what they are 

 appointed to signify ; for the real signification of a concrete 



1 general name is, as we have so often said, its connotation; 

 and what the concrete term connotes, forms the entire mean 

 ing of the abstract name. Since there is nothing in the 

 import of an abstract name which is not in the import of the 

 corresponding concrete, it is natural to suppose that neither 

 can there be anything in the import of a proposition of which 

 the terms are abstract, but what there is in some proposition 

 which can be framed of concrete terms. 



And this presumption a closer examination will confirm. 

 An abstract name is the name of an attribute, or combination 

 of attributes. The corresponding concrete is a name given to 



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