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 

 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- 



