110 



NAMES AND PROPOSITIONS. 



5. We have already proceeded far enough, not only to 

 demonstrate the error of Hobbes, but to ascertain the real 

 import of by far the most numerous class of propositions. 

 The object of belief in a proposition, when it asserts anything 

 more than the meaning of words, is generally, as in the cases 

 which we have examined, either the co-existence or the 

 sequence of two phenomena. At the very commencement of our 

 inquiry, we found that every act of belief implied two Things : 

 we have now ascertained what, in the most frequent case, these 

 two things are, namely two Phenomena, in other words, two 

 states of consciousness ; and what it is which the proposition 

 affirms (or denies) to subsist between them, namely either suc- 

 cession or co-existence. And this case includes innumerable 

 instances which no one, previous to reflection, would think of 

 referring to it. Take the following example : A generous 

 person is worthy of honour. Who would expect to recognise 

 here a case of co-existence between phenomena ? But so it is. 

 The attribute which causes a person to be termed generous, is 

 ascribed to him on the ground of states of his mind, and par- 

 ticulars of his conduct : both are phenomena : the former are 

 facts of internal consciousness ; the latter, so far as distinct 

 from the former, are physical facts, or perceptions of the senses. 

 Worthy of honour admits of a similar analysis. Honour, as 

 here used, means a state of approving and admiring emotion, 

 followed on occasion by corresponding outward acts. " Worthy 

 of honour" connotes all this, together with our approval of the 

 act of showing honour. All these are phenomena ; states of 

 internal consciousness, accompanied or followed by physical 

 facts. When we say, A generous person is worthy of honour, 

 we affirm co-existence between the two complicated pheno- 

 mena connoted by the two terms respectively. We affirm, 

 that wherever and whenever the inward feelings and outward 

 facts implied in the word generosity have place, then and 

 there the existence and manifestation of an inward feeling, 

 honour, would be followed in our minds by another inward 

 feeling, approval. 



After the analysis, in a former chapter, of the import of 

 names, many examples are not needed to illustrate the import 



