MAN 273 



in the mind, the one particular falling oak from all 

 others. It implies the idea of a unity of a different sort 

 from the unity implied by the word " oak." 



(3) The word is denotes the most abstract of all 

 abstract terms, the idea of " existence " or " being," 

 the significance of which has been before pointed out.* 



(4) The word falling is a term denoting another 

 abstraction the conception of a " quality " or " state." 

 The idea is one which is evidently capable of a very wide 

 application, namely, to everything which may fall. Yet 

 the idea itself is one single idea. 



A word by itself has but a very imperfect significa- 

 tion. It needs the addition, expressed or implied, of 

 others to give it full meaning to explicitly f express a 

 judgment. Such a congeries of words is a sentence, and 

 the four words " That oak is falling," is one such sig- 

 nificant set of words. 



What is true of this single sentence is true of all sen- 

 tences. All human language (apart from mere emotional 

 manifestations) necessarily implies and gives expression 

 to a number of abstract ideas. It is impossible for even 

 the most brutal savage to speak the simplest sentence 

 without having first formed for himself highly abstract 

 ideas. Wherever, therefore, language exists, there also 

 must exist the power and the active exercise of mental 

 abstraction. 



All our words express abstract ideas, except proper 

 names, and words denoting individuals, such as the 

 words "I" "thou" "they," &c. Words which denote 

 individual objects, real or ideal, are termed, as we all 

 know, " substantives," as a parrot, a desire. A word 

 which indicates that anything acts or is acted on, is, as 



* See ante, p. 253. t See ante, p. 255. 



S 



