NAMES. 33 



capable of being truly affirmed, in the same sense, 

 of one thing. 



Thus, man is capable of being truly affirmed of 

 John,, Peter, George, and other persons without assign- 

 able limits : and it is affirmed of all of them in the 

 same sense ; for the word man expresses certain qua- 

 lities, and when we predicate it of those persons, we 

 assert that they all possess those qualities. But John 

 is only capable of being truly affirmed of one single 

 person, at least in the same sense. For although 

 there are many persons who bear that name, it is not 

 conferred upon them to indicate any qualities, or any- 

 thing which belongs to them in common ; and cannot 

 be said to be affirmed of them in any sense at all, con- 

 sequently not in the same sense. " The present king 

 of England" is also an individual name. For, that 

 there never can be more than one person at a time of 

 whom it can be truly affirmed, is implied in the mean- 

 ing of the words. 



It is not unusual, by way of explaining what is 

 meant by a general name, to say that it is the name of 

 a class. But this, though a convenient mode of ex- 

 pression for some purposes, is objectionable as a defi- 

 nition, since it explains the clearer of two things by 

 the more obscure. It would be more logical to reverse 

 the proposition, and turn it into a definition of the 

 word class : " A class is the indefinite multitude of 

 individuals denoted by a general name." 



It is necessary to distinguish general from collec- 

 tive names. A general name is one which can be pre- 

 dicated of each individual of a multitude ; a collec- 

 tive name cannot be predicated of each separately, 

 but only of all taken together. " The 76th regiment 

 of foot," which is a collective name, is not a general 

 but an individual name ; for although it can be pre- 



VOL. I. D 



