measure of acceptance according as its subject is understood
collectively or distributively. The word 'all' is perfectly ambiguous
in this respect. It may mean all together or each separately--two
senses which are distinguished in Latin by 'totus' or 'cunctus,' for
the collective, and 'omnis' for the distributive use.

120. What is usually meant however when people speak of a collective
term is a particular kind of singular term.

121. From this point of view singular terms may be subdivided into
Individual and Collective, by an Individual Term being meant the name
of one object, by a Collective Term the name of several considered as
one. 'This key' is an individual term; 'my bunch of keys' is a
collective term.

122. A collective term is quite as much the name of one thing as an
individual term is, though the thing in question happens to be a
group. A group is one thing, if we choose to think of it as one. For
the mind, as we have already seen, has an unlimited power of forming
its own things, or objects of thought. Thus a particular peak in a
mountain chain is as much one thing as the chain itself, though,
physically speaking, it is inseparable from it, just as the chain
itself is inseparable from the earth's surface. In the same way a
necklace is as much one thing as the individual beads which compose
it.

123. We have just seen that a collective term is the name of a group
regarded as one thing: but every term which is the name of such a
group is not necessarily a collective term. 'London,' for instance, is
the name of a group of objects considered as one thing. But 'London'