There is one important class of words, the NAMES of NAMES; of which we shall have occasion to take account more particularly hereafter, and of which it is necessary here to speak only as they form a variety of Predication. A few examples will make the case {192} intelligible. WORD is a generical name for all Names. It is not the name of a Thing, as chair is the name of a thing, or watch, or picture. But word is a _name_ for these several _names_; chair is a word, watch is a word, picture is a word, and so of all other names. Thus grammatical and logical terms are names of names. The word _noun_, is the name of one class of words, _verb_ of another, _preposition_ of another, and so on. The word _sentence_, is the name of a series of words put together for a certain purpose; the word _paragraph_ the same; and so _oration_, _discourse_, _essay_, _treatise_, &c. The words _genus_ and _species_, are not names of things, but of names. Genus is not the name of any thing called animal or any thing called body; it is a name of the _names_ animal, body, and so on; the _name_ animal is a _genus_, the name _body_ is a _genus_; and in like manner is the _name_ man a _species_, the _name_ horse, the name crow, and so on. The name _proposition_, the name _syllogism_, are names of a series of words put together for a particular purpose; and so is the term _definition_; and the term _argument_. It will be easily seen that these words enter into Predication precisely on the same principles as other words. Either the more distinct is predicated of the less distinct, its equivalent; or the more comprehensive of the less comprehensive. Thus we say, that nouns and verbs are declinables; preposition and adverb indeclinables; where the more comprehensive terms are predicated of the less. Thus we say, that adjectives and verbs are attributes; where the more distinct is predicated of the less.[58] [Editor's footnote 58: This exposition of the class of words which are properly names of names, belongs originally to Hobbes, and is highly {193} important. They are a kind of names, the signification of which is very often misunderstood, and has given occasion to much hazy speculation. It should however be remarked that the words genus and species are not solely names of names; they are ambiguous. A genus never indeed means (as many of the schoolmen supposed) an abstract entity, distinct from all the individuals composing the class; but it often means the sum of those individuals taken collectively; the class as a whole, distinguished on the one hand from the single objects comprising it, and on the other hand from the class name.--_Ed._] {194} SECTION V. PRONOUNS.