VARIATIONS IN MEANING OF TERMS. 247 



many occasions by Bentham. It gives rise to the fallacy of 

 " question-begging names." The very property which we are 

 inquiring whether a thing possesses or not, has become so 

 associated with the name of the thing as to be part of its 

 meaning, insomuch that by merely uttering the name we 

 assume the point which was to be made out : one of the most 

 frequent sources of apparently self-evident propositions. 



Without any further multiplication of examples to illus- 

 trate the changes which usage is continually making in the 

 signification of terms, I shall add, as a practical rule, that the 

 logician, not being able to prevent such transformations, 

 should submit to them with a good grace when they are irre- 

 vocably effected, and if a definition is necessary, define the 

 word according to its new meaning ; retaining the former as a 

 second signification, if it is needed, and if there is any 

 chance of being able to preserve it either in the language of 

 philosophy or in common use. Logicians cannot make the 

 meaning of any but scientific terms : that of all other words is 

 made by the collective human race. But logicians can ascer- 

 tain clearly what it is which, working obscurely, has guided 

 the general mind to a particular employment of a name ; and 

 when they have found this, they can clothe it in such distinct 

 and permanent terms, that mankind shall see the meaning 

 which before they only felt, and shall not suffer it to be after- 

 wards forgotten or misapprehended. 



