152 NAMES AND PROPOSITIONS. 



would do so if all our simple feelings had names. Whiteness 

 may he defined, the property or power of exciting the sensa 

 tion of white. A white object maybe defined, an object which 

 excites the sensation of white. The only names which are un 

 susceptible of definition, because their meaning is unsusceptible 

 of analysis, are the names of the simple feelings themselves. 

 These are in the same condition as proper names. They are not 

 indeed, like proper names, unmeaning ; for the words sensation 

 of white signify, that the sensation which I so denominate re 

 sembles other sensations which I remember to have had before, 

 and to have called by that name. But as we have no words 

 by which to recal those former sensations, except the very 

 word which we seek to define, or some other which, being 

 exactly synonymous with it, requires definition as much, words 

 cannot unfold the signification of this class of names ; and we 

 are obliged to make a direct appeal to the personal experience 

 of the individual whom we address. 



3. Having stated what seems to be the true idea of a 

 Definition, we proceed to examine some opinions of philo 

 sophers, and some popular conceptions on the subject, which 

 conflict more or less with that idea. 



The only adequate definition of a name is, as already 

 remarked, one which declares the facts, and the whole of the 

 facts, which the name involves in its signification. But with 

 most persons the object of a definition does not embrace so 

 much ; they look for nothing more, in a definition, than a 

 guide to the correct use of the term a protection against 

 applying it in a manner inconsistent with custom and con 

 vention. Anything, therefore, is to them a sufficient definition 

 of a term, which will serve as a correct index to what the term 

 denotes ; though not embracing the whole, and sometimes, 

 perhaps, not even any part, of what it connotes. This gives 

 rise to two sorts of imperfect, or unscientific definition ; 

 Essential but incomplete Definitions, and Accidental Defi 

 nitions, or Descriptions. In the former, a connotative name 

 is defined by a part only of its connotation ; in the latter, by 

 something which forms no part of the connotation at all. 



