I will here quote some judicious remarks of Mr. Howard, which fall partly under this Aphorism, and partly under some which follow. He had proposed, as names for the kinds of clouds, the following: _Cirrus_, _Cirrocumulus_, _Cirrostratus_, _Cumulostratus_, _Cumulus_, _Nimbus_, _Stratus_. In an abridgment of his views, given in the Supplement to the _Encyclopædia Britannica_, English names were proposed as the equivalents of these; _Curlcloud_, _Sondercloud_, _Wanecloud_, _Twaincloud_, _Stackencloud_, _Raincloud_, _Fallcloud_. Upon these Mr. Howard observes: 'I mention these, in order to have the opportunity of saying that I do not adopt them. The names for the clouds which I deduced from the Latin, are but seven in number, and very easy to remember. They were intended as _arbitrary terms_ for the _structure_ of clouds, and the meaning of them was carefully fixed by a definition. The observer having once made himself master of this, was able to apply the term with correctness, after a little experience, to the subject under all its varieties of form, colour, or position. The {294} new names, if meant to be another set of arbitrary terms, are superfluous; if intended to convey in themselves an explanation in English, they fail in this, by applying to some part or circumstance only of the definition; the _whole_ of which must be kept in view to study the subject with success. To take for an example the first of the modifications. The term _cirrus_ very readily takes an abstract meaning, equally applicable to the rectilinear as to the flexuous forms of the subject. But the name of _curl-cloud_ will not, without some violence to its _obvious sense_, acquire this more extensive one: and will therefore be apt to mislead the reader rather than further his progress. Others of these names are as devoid of a meaning obvious to the English reader, as the Latin terms themselves. But the principal objection to English or any other local terms, remains to be stated. They take away from the nomenclature its general advantage of constituting, as far as it goes, an universal language, by means of which the intelligent of every country may convey to each other their ideas without the necessity of translation.' I here adduce these as examples of the arguments against changing an established nomenclature. As grounds of selecting a new one, they may be taken into account hereafter. APHORISM XI. _Terms which imply theoretical views are admissible, as far as the theory is proved._