28 NAMES AND PROPOSITIONS. 



in any sense but this, that he that hears it collects 

 that he that pronounces it thinks of a stone/' 



If it be merely meant that the conception alone, 

 and not the thing itself, is recalled by the name, or 

 imparted to the hearer, this of course cannot be denied. 

 Nevertheless, there seems good reason for adhering to 

 the common usage, and calling the word sun the name 

 of the sun, and not the name of our idea of the sun. 

 For names are not intended only to make the hearer 

 conceive what we conceive, but also to inform him 

 what we believe. Now, when I use a name for the 

 purpose of expressing a belief, it is a belief concerning 

 the thing itself, not concerning my idea of it. When 

 I say, " the sun is the cause of day," I do not mean 

 that my idea of the sun causes or excites in me the 

 idea of day ; but that the physical object, the sun 

 itself, is the cause from which the outward pheno- 

 menon, day, follows as an effect. It seems proper to 

 consider a word as the name of that which we intend 

 to be understood by it when we use it ; of that which 

 any fact that we assert of it is to be understood of; 

 that, in short, concerning which, when we employ the 

 word, we intend to give information. Names, there- 

 fore, shall always be spoken of in this work as the 

 names of things themselves, and not merely of our 

 ideas of things. 



But the question now arises, of what things ? and 

 to answer this it is necessary to take into consideration 

 the different kinds of names. 



2. It is usual, before examining the various classes 

 into which names are commonly divided, to begin by 

 distinguishing from names of every description, those 

 words which are not names, but only parts of names. 

 Among such are reckoned particles, as o/, to, truly, 



