to become a new quality. The compound terms 'great weight,' 'bad
government,' 'dull vitality,' have not the same denotation as the simple
terms 'weight, 'government,' 'vitality': they imply, and may be said to
connote, more special concrete experience, such as the effort felt in
lifting a trunk, disgust at the conduct of officials, sluggish movements
of an animal when irritated. It is to such concrete experiences that we
have always to refer in order fully to realise the meaning of abstract
terms, and therefore, of course, to understand any qualification of
them.

Sec. 5. Concrete terms may be subdivided according to the number of things
they denote and the way in which they denote them. A term may denote one
thing or many: if one, it is called Singular; if many, it may do so
distributively, and then it is General; or, as taken all together, and
then it is Collective: one, then; any one of many; many in one.

Among Singular Terms, each denoting a single thing, the most obvious are
Proper Names, such as Gibraltar or George Washington, which are merely
marks of individual things or persons, and may form no part of the
common language of a country. They are thus distinguished from other
Singular Terms, which consist of common words so combined as to restrict
their denotation to some individual, such as, 'the strongest man on
earth.'

Proper Terms are often said to be arbitrary signs, because their use
does not depend upon any reason that may be given for them. Gibraltar
had a meaning among the Moors when originally conferred; but no one now
knows what it was, unless he happens to have learned it; yet the name
serves its purpose as well as if it were "Rooke's Nest." Every Newton
or Newport year by year grows old, but to alter the name would cause
only confusion. If such names were given by mere caprice it would make
no difference; and they could not be more cumbrous, ugly, or absurd than
many of those that are given 'for reasons.'

The remaining kinds of Singular Terms are drawn from the common
resources of the language. Thus the pronouns 'he,' 'she,' 'it,' are
singular terms, whose present denotation is determined by the occasion
and context of discourse: so with demonstrative phrases--'the man,'
'that horse.' Descriptive names may be more complex, as 'the wisest man
of Gotham,' which is limited to some individual by the superlative
suffix; or 'the German Emperor,' which is limited by the definite
article--the general