NAMES. 21 



men. Swift's HouyhnhjTis were not so called. Or if such newly- 

 discovered beings possessed the form of man without any vestige of 

 reason, it i« probable that some other name than that of man would bo 

 found for them. How it happens that there can be any doubt about 

 the matter, will appear hereafter. The word man, therefore, signifies 

 all these attributes, and all subjects which possess these atti'ibutes. 

 But it can be predicated only of the subjects. What we call men, are 

 the subjects, the individual Stiles and Nokes ; not the qualities by 

 which their humanity is constituted. The name, therefore, is said to 

 signify the subjects directly, the attributes indirectly ; it denotes the 

 subjects, and implies, or involves, or indicates, or as we sh^ir say 

 henceforth, connotes, the attributes. It is a connotative name. 



Connotative names have hence been also called denominative, 

 because the subject which they denote is denominated by, or receives 

 a name from, the attiibute which they connote. Snow, and other 

 objects, receive the name white, because they possess the attribute 

 which is called whiteness ; James and Robert receive the name man, 

 because they possess the attributes which are considered to constitute 

 humanity. The attribute, or attributes, may therefore be said to 

 denominate those objects, or to give them a common name. 



It has been seen that all concrete general names are connotative. 

 Even abstract names, though the names only of attributes, may in 

 some instances be justly considered as connotative; for attributes 

 themselves may have attributes ascribed to them ; and a word which 

 denotes attributes may connote an attribute of those attributes. It is 

 thus, for exainple, with such a word as fault; equivalent to had or 

 hurtful quality. This word is a name common to many attributes, 

 and connotes hurtfulness, an attribute of those various attributes. 

 When, for example, we say that slowness, in a horse, is a fault, we do 

 not mean that the slow m.ovement, the actual change of place of the 

 slow horse, has any mischievous effects, but that the property or 

 peculiarity of the horse, from which it derives that name, the quality 

 of being a slow mover, is an undesirable peculiarity. 



In regard to those concrete^ names which are not general btit 

 individual, a. distinction must be made. 



Proper names. are not connotative ; they denote the individuals who 

 are called by them ; but they do not indicate or imply any attributes 

 as belonging to those individuals. When we name a child by the 

 name Mary, or a dog by the name Cassar, these names are simply 

 marks used to enable those individuals to be made subjects of discourse. 

 It may be said, indeed, that we must Jiave had some reason forgiving 

 them those names rather than any others : and this is true ; but the 

 name, once given, becomes independent of the reason. A man may 

 have been named John because that was the name of his father ; a 

 town may have been named Dartmouth, because it is situated at the 

 mouth of the Dart. But it is no part of the signification of the word 

 John, that the father of the person so called bore the same name ; nor 

 even of the v/ord Dartmouth, to be situated at the moUth of the Dart, 

 If sand should choke up the mouth of the river, or an earthcpiake 

 change its course, and remove it to a distance from the town, there is 

 no reason to think that the name of the town would be changed. That 

 fact, therefore, can form no part of the signification of the word ; for 

 Otherwise, when the fact ceased to be trae, the name would cease to 



