132 NAMES AND PROPOSITIONS. 



not only used by naturalists in a technical acceptation not 

 precisely agreeing with their philosophical meaning, but have 

 also acquired a popular acceptation, much more general than 

 either. In this popular sense any two classes, one of which 

 includes the whole of the other and more, may be called a 

 Genus and a Species. Such, for instance, are Animal and 

 Man ; Man and Mathematician. Animal is a Genus ; Man 

 and Brute are its two species ; or we may divide it into a 

 greater number of species, as man, horse, dog, &c. Biped, or 

 two-footed animal, may also be considered a genus, of which 

 man and bird are two species. Taste is a genus, of which sweet 

 taste, sour taste, salt taste, &c. are species. Virtue is a genus ; 

 justice, prudence, courage, fortitude, generosity, &c. are its 

 species. 



The same class which is a genus with reference to the 

 j sub-classes or species included in it, may be itself a species 

 with reference to a more comprehensive, or, as it is often 

 called, a superior genus. Man is a species with reference 

 to animal, but a genus with reference to the species Mathe 

 matician. Animal is a genus, divided into two species, man 

 and brute; but animal is also a species, which, with another 

 species, vegetable, makes up the genus, organized being. 

 Biped is a genus with reference to man and bird, but a 

 species with respect to the superior genus, animal. Taste is 

 a genus divided into species, but also a species of the genus 

 sensation. Virtue, a genus with reference to justice, tem 

 perance, &c., is one of the species of the genus, mental 

 quality. 



In this popular sense the words Genus and Species have 

 passed into common discourse. And it should be~ observed 

 that in ordinary parlance, not the name of the class, but the 

 class itself, is said to be the genus or species ; not, of course, 

 the class in the sense of each individual of the class, but the 

 individuals collectively, considered as an aggregate whole ; the 

 name by which the class is designated being then called not 

 the genus or species, but the generic or specific name. And 

 this is an admissible form of expression ; nor is it of any im 

 portance which of the two modes of speaking we adopt, pro- 



