REQUISITES OF LANGUAGE. 253 



such a case, to give a fixed connotation to the term 

 by restricting, than by extending its use; rather ex- 

 cluding from the epithet beautiful some things to 

 which it is commonly considered applicable, than 

 leaving out of its connotation any of the qualities by 

 which, though occasioually lost sight of, the general 

 mind may have been habitually guided in the com- 

 monest and most interesting applications of the term. 

 For there is no question that when people call any- 

 thing beautiful, they think they are asserting more 

 than that it is merely agreeable. They think they 

 are ascribing a peculiar sort of agreeableness, analo- 

 gous to that which they find in some other of the 

 things to which they are accustomed to apply the 

 same name. If, therefore, there be any peculiar sort 

 of agreeableness which is common, though not to all, 

 yet to the principal things which are called beautiful, 

 it is better to limit the denotation of the term to those 

 things, than to leave that kind of quality without a 

 term to connote it, and thereby divert attention from 

 its peculiarities. 



6. The last remark exemplifies a rule of termi- 

 nology, which is of great importance, and which has 

 hardly yet been recognised as a rule, but by a few 

 thinkers of the present generation. In attempting to 

 rectify the use of a vague term by giving it a fixed 

 connotation, we must take care not to discard (unless 

 advisedly, and on the ground of a deeper knowledge 

 of the subject,) any portion of the connotation which 

 the word, in however indistinct a manner, previously 

 carried with it. For otherwise language loses one 

 of its inherent and most valuable properties, that 

 of being the conservator of ancient experience; the 

 keeper-alive of those thoughts and observations of 



