class of objects in the usual sense of that term, like the words man, tree, horse, star; but assuming a sort of identity, by no means real, in the things to which they are applied. The terms light, heat, air, oxygen, hydrogen, silver, gold, exemplify my meaning; in which instances the words are not the names of classes as ordinarily understood, nor yet of collective wholes, but of substances, wherever and in whatever quantity found, possessing certain definite qualities.

These words are, nevertheless, in effect, the names of classes. As what you predicate of a class may be predicated of any individual member of it, so what you predicate of one of these substances is predicable of every portion of it. Gold, for instance, is describable as being yellow, and possessing a certain specific gravity; i. e., any portion of gold has these properties, just as every man has head, trunk, and limbs. There is, to be sure, this difference, that every man is a circumscribed organised being constituting an individual whole, which is destroyed when a certain separation of parts takes place; while every portion of gold, even the minutest, possesses all the properties on account of which the name is bestowed.

For the purpose I have in view, however, this distinction is of no importance. Just as the word man brings before the mind some individual image of humanity, so the word gold raises up the idea

of some piece of gold-some portion of the metal, or some article composed of it.

The same remark may be usefully made respecting the important and very comprehensive general term matter, which is the common name of everything perceived through the organs of sight and touch, not to speak of other organs. When you

happen to be thinking about matter with any clearness and distinctness you have in your mental view some particular form of matter, some individual substance formerly observed through one or more of your bodily organs, or perhaps you have a long array of such individual substances in succession. Such is all that definite and precise thinking can possibly yield.

LETTER XXIII.

ABSTRACT TERMS.

We next come to the consideration of what passes in the mind when abstract terms are used; and this, I may venture to say, is a part of the subject that will repay the close attention which it unavoidably requires.

By abstract terms, which should be carefully distinguished from general names, I mean those which do not designate any object or event, or any class of objects and events, but an attribute or quality belonging to them, and which are capable of standing grammatically detached, without being joined to other terms: such are the words roundness, swiftness, length, innocence, equity, health, whiteness.

On reflecting upon what passes in my own consciousness when such terms are used, I find that I think of some object possessing the quality thus abstractly signified. When I hear the word || "roundness," I think of a circle or a sphere. If any one talks of swiftness, I think of the flight of an arrow, or of an eagle cleaving the air, or a race

horse, or an express railway-train in full career, or a flash of lightning; if he mentions whiteness, I think of the snow, or a swan, or a lily, or some other white object.

As a general name may call up a greater variety of images than a proper name, so may an abstract term. While the proper name St. Paul's Church raises a particular image, the common name circle may call up a circle of any size and any colour; and the abstract term roundness may bring to mind, not only a circle of any size and any colour, but the full moon, or a glass globe, or a diamond ring, or a cylindrical pillar, or all these objects in rapid succession.

If any one doubts that proper names, common names, and abstract terms, occasion essentially the same mental phenomena, and differ only in the possible range of images which they raise up, let him specify in precise language what it is that he thinks of, or what passes in his mind when such names and terms are employed.

To put this to the test, let us take three specimens of composition; one of which shall consist chiefly of Proper names, another of Common names, and the third of Abstract terms.

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1. PROPER NAMES.

Amongst the company assembled on the occasion in St. James's Palace, we noticed Her Majesty

the Queen, Prince Albert, the Duchess of Kent, the Duke of Cambridge, the Duke of Wellington, the Marquis of Lansdowne, Lord John Russell, and Lord Palmerston."

(I put down these names because the persons indicated are generally known.)

2. COMMON NAMES.

"The China roses, in full bloom, adorned both sides of the cottage-door; beans and peas were blossoming in the garden, the borders of which were gay with pinks and gilliflowers, mingling their rich fragrance with that of a hedge of sweetbriar. The thrush and the blackbird were singing in the neighbouring coppice; and overhead the skylark, although to the sight only a dusky atom fluttering in the sky,' seemed to the ear a fountain of melody."

3. ABSTRACT TERMS.

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"The swiftness with which the news circulated. through the half-starved community was surpassed only by the eagerness with which every particular was received, and by the joy which it diffused through the abodes of poverty. Even Disease raised its languid eyes in momentary forgetfulness of its sufferings, and Age was won back to an interest in life."

I will venture to

say, that if any one reads over