CLASSIFICATION AND THE PREDICABLES. I (>3 



considered a genus, of which man and bird are two 

 species. Taste is a genus, of which sweet taste, sour 

 taste, salt taste, &c., are species. Virtue is a genus; 

 justice, prudence, courage, fortitude, generosity, &c., 

 are its species. 



The same class which is a genus with reference to 

 the sub- classes or species included in it, may be itself 

 a species with reference to a more comprehensive, or, 

 as it is often called, a superior, genus. Man is a 

 species with reference to animal, but a genus with 

 reference to the species mathematician. Animal is a 

 genus, divided into two species, man and brute ; but 

 animal is also a species, which, with another species, 

 vegetable, makes up the genus, organized being. 

 Biped is a genus with reference to man and bird, but 

 a species with respect to the superior genus, animal. 

 Taste is a genus divided into species, but also a 

 species of the genus sensation. Virtue, a genus with 

 reference to justice, temperance, &c., is one of the 

 species of the genus, mental quality. 



In this popular sense the words Genus and Species 

 have passed into common discourse. And it should 

 be observed that, in ordinary parlance, not the name 

 of the class, but the class itself, is said to be the genus 

 or species ; not, of course, the class in the sense of 

 each individual of that class, but the individuals 

 collectively, considered as an aggregate whole ; the 

 names by which the class is designated being then 

 called not the genus or species, but the generic or 

 specific name. And this is an admissible form of 

 expression ; nor is it of any importance which of the 

 two modes of speaking we adopt, provided the rest of 

 our language is consistent with it ; but if we call the 

 class itself the genus, we must not talk of predicating 

 the genus. We predicate of man the name mortal ; 



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