THINGS DENOTED BY NAMES. 31 



nified by each of them. And we have now canied this survey fai' 

 enough to be able to take an account of its I'eSults, and to exhibit an 

 enumeration of all the kinds of Things which are capable of being 

 made predicates, or of having anything predicated of them : after 

 which to determine the import of Predication, that is, of Propositions, 

 can be no arduous task. 



The necessity of an enumeration of Existences, as the basis of Logic, 

 did not escape the attention of the schoolmen, and of their master, 

 Aristotle, the most comprehensive', if not the most sagacious, of the 

 ancieht philosophers. The Categories, or Predicaments — the former 

 a Greek word, the latter its literal translation in the Latin language — - 

 were intended by him and his followers as an enumeration of all things 

 capable of being_ named ; an emnncration by the summa genera, i. e. 

 the most extensive classes into wIiIcIk things could be distributed ; 

 which, therefore, were so many highest Predicates, one or other of 

 which was supposed capable of being affiiTned with triith of every 

 nameable thing whatsoever. The following are the classes into which, 

 according to this school of philosophy. Things in general might be re- 

 duced : — 



The imperfections of this classification are too obvious to require, 

 and its merits are not sufficient to reward, a minute examination. It 

 is a mere catalogue of the distinctions rudely marked out by the lan- 

 guage of familiar life, with little or no attempt to penetrate, by philo- 

 sophic analysis, to the rationale even of those common distinctions. 

 Such an analysis, however superficially conducted, would have shown 

 the enumeration to be both redundant and defective. Some objects 

 are omitted, and others repeated several times under different heads. 

 It is like a division of animals into men, quadrupeds, horses, asses, and 

 ponies. That, for instance, could not be a very comprehensive view 

 of the nature of Relation which could exclude action, passivity, and lo- 

 cal situation from that category. The same observation applies to the 

 categories Quando (or position in time) and Ubi (or position in space) ; 

 wlxile the' distinction between' tlie latter and Situs is merely veilsal. 

 The incongruity of erecting into a sujnimim genus the class which forms 

 the tenth category is manifest. On the other hand, the enumeration 

 take.? no notice of anything besides substances and atti-ibutes. In what 

 category are we to place sensatipns, or any other feelings, and states 

 of mind ; as hope, joy, fear j sound, smell, taste ; pain," ple,asure ; 

 thought, judgment, conception, and the like 1 Probably all- these 

 would have been placed by the Aristotelian school' in the categories of 

 actio and 2^(iss/o ; and the relation of such of them aS are active, to 

 their objects, and of such of them as are passive, to their causes, would 

 rightly be so placed j but the things themselves, the feelings Or states 



