34 NAMES AND PROPOSITIONS. 



dicated of a multitude of individual soldiers taken 

 jointly, it cannot be predicated of them severally. 

 We may say, Jones is a soldier, and Thompson is a 

 soldier, and Smith is a soldier, but we cannot say, 

 Jones is the 76th regiment, and Thompson is the 76th 

 regiment, and Smith is the 76th regiment. We can 

 only say, Jones, and Thompson, and Smith, and 

 Brown, and so forth, (enumerating all the soldiers,) 

 are the 76th regiment. 



" The 76th regiment" is a collective name, but 

 not a general one : "a regiment" is both a collective 

 and a general name. General with respect to all indi- 

 vidual regiments, of each of which separately it can 

 be affirmed ; collective with respect to the individual 

 soldiers, of whom any regiment is composed. 



4. The second general division of names is into 

 concrete and abstract. A concrete name is a name 

 which stands for a thing ; an abstract name is a name 

 which stands for an attribute of a thing. Thus, John, 

 the sea, this table, are names of things. White, also, 

 is a name of a thing, or rather of things. White- 

 ness, again, is the name of a quality or attribute of 

 those things. Man is a name of many things ; huma- 

 nity is a name of an attribute of those things. Old 

 is a name of things ; old age is a name of one of their 

 attributes. 



I have used the words concrete and abstract in 

 the sense annexed to them by the schoolmen, who, 

 notwithstanding the imperfections of their philosophy, 

 were unrivalled in the construction of technical lan- 

 guage, and whose definitions, in logic at least, though 

 they never went more than a little way into the sub- 

 ject, have seldom, I think, been altered but to be 

 spoiled. A practice, however, has grown up in more 



