ge of the function of this element of
speech is the basis of all logical discipline. Therefore, though we
must always remember that the proposition is the real unit of speech,
and the general name only an analytic element, we take the general
name and its allied distinctions in thought and reality first.

How propositions are analysed for syllogistic purposes will be shown
by-and-by, but we must first explain various technical terms that
logicians have devised to define the features of this cardinal
element. The technical terms CLASS, CONCEPT, NOTION, ATTRIBUTE,
EXTENSION or DENOTATION, INTENSION or CONNOTATION, GENUS, SPECIES,
DIFFERENTIA, SINGULAR NAME, COLLECTIVE NAME, ABSTRACT NAME, all centre
round it.

A general name is a name applicable to a number of different things on
the ground of some likeness among them, as _man_, _ratepayer_, _man of
courage_, _man who fought at Waterloo_.

From the examples it will be seen that a general name logically is
not necessarily a single word. Any word or combination of words that
serves a certain function is technically a general name. The different
ways of making in common speech the equivalent of a general name
logically are for the grammarian to consider.

In the definition of a general name attention is called to two
distinct considerations, the individual objects to each of which
the name is applicable, and the points of resemblance among them, in
virtue of which they have a common name. For those distinctions there
are technical terms.

CLASS is the technical term for the objects, different yet agreeing,
to each of which a general name may be applied.

The points of resemblance are called the common ATTRIBUTES of the
class.

A class may be constituted on one attribute or on several.
_Ratepayer_, _woman ratepayer_, _unmarried woman ratepayer_;
_soldier_, _British soldier_, _British soldier on foreign service_.
But every individual to which the general name can be applied must
possess the common attribute or attributes.

These common attributes are also called the NOTION of the class,
inasmuch as it is these that the mind notes or should note when the
general name is applied. CONCEPT is a synonym perhaps in more common
use than notion; the rationale of this term (derived from _con_ and
_capere_, to take or grasp together) being that it is by means of
the points of resemblance that the individuals are grasped or held
together by the mind. These common points are th