DEFINITION. 187 



sensation of white. A white object may be defined 

 an object which excites the sensation of white. The 

 only names which are unsusceptible of definition, 

 because their meaning is unsusceptible of analysis, are 

 the names of the simple feelings themselves. These 

 are in the same condition as proper names. They are 

 not, indeed, like proper names, unmeaning; for the 

 words sensation of white signify, that the sensation 

 which I so denominate resembles other sensations 

 which I remember to have had before, and to have 

 called by that name. But as we have no words by 

 which to recal those former sensations, except the 

 very word which we seek to define, or some other 

 which, being exactly synonymous with it, requires 

 definition as much, words cannot unfold the significa- 

 tion of this class of names ; and we are obliged to 

 make a direct appeal to the personal experience of the 

 individual whom we address, 



4. Having stated what seems to be the true idea 

 of a Definition, we proceed to examine some opinions 

 of philosophers, and some popular conceptions on the 

 subject, which conflict more or less with the above. 



The only adequate definition of a name is, as already 

 remarked, one which declares the facts, and the whole 

 of the facts, which the name involves in its significa- 

 tion. But with most persons the object of a defini- 

 tion does not embrace so much; they look for nothing 

 more, in a definition, than a guide to the correct use of 

 the term a protection against applying it in a manner 

 inconsistent with custom and convention. Anything, 

 therefore, is to them a sufficient definition of a term, 

 which will serve as a correct index to what the term 

 denotes ; although not embracing the whole, and 

 sometimes, perhaps, not even any part, of what it 



