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 term 'German Emperor' being thereby restricted
either to the reigning monarch or to the one we happen to be discussing.
Instead of the definite, the indefinite article may be used to make
general terms singular, as 'a German Emperor was crowned at Versailles'
(_individua vaga_).

Abstract Terms are ostensively singular: 'whiteness' (e.g.) is one
quality. But their full meaning is general: 'whiteness' stands for all
white things, so far as white. Abstract terms, in fact, are only
formally singular.

General Terms are words, or combinations of words, used to denote any
one of many things that resemble one another in certain respects.
'George III.' is a Singular Term denoting one man; but 'King' is a
General Term denoting him and all other men of the same rank; whilst the
compound 'crowned head' is still more general, denoting kings and also
emperors. It is the nature of a general term, then, to be used in the
same sense of whatever it denotes; and its most characteristic form is
the Class-name, whether of objects, such as 'king,' 'sheep,' 'ghost'; or