THINGS DENOTED BY NAMES. 71 



the mind, and to be carefully distinguished from the 

 external or physical facts with which they may be 

 connected, either as effects or as causes. 



5. Among active states of mind, there is however 

 one species which merits particular attention, because 

 it forms a principal part of the connotation of some 

 important classes of names. I mean volitions, or acts 

 of the will. When we speak of sentient beings by 

 relative names, a large portion of the eonnotation of 

 the name usually consists of the actions of those 

 beings ; actions past, present, and possible or probable 

 future. Take, for instance, the words Sovereign and 

 Subject. What meaning do these words convey, but 

 that of innumerable actions, done or to be done by 

 the sovereign and the subjects, to or in regard to one 

 another reciprocally? So with the words physician 

 and patient, leader and follower, master and servant. 

 In many cases the words also connote actions which 

 would be done under certain contingencies by persons 

 other than those denoted : as the words mortgagor 

 and mortgagee, obligor and obligee, and many other 

 words expressive of legal relation, which connote what 

 a court of justice would do to enforce the legal obli- 

 gation if not fulfilled. There are also words which 

 connote actions previously done by persons other than 

 those denoted either by the name itself or by its 

 correlative; as the word brother. From these in- 

 stances, it may be seen how large a portion of the 

 connotation of names consists of actions. Now what 

 is an action ? Not one thing, but a series of two 

 things : the state of mind called a volition, followed 

 by an effect. The volition, or intention to produce 

 the effect, is one thing ; the effect produced in con- 

 sequence of the intention, is another thing ; the two 



