abstractedly from the body that occupies it; and bence the abstract term space. In the same manner, existence may be considered abstractedly from any particular thing that exists; and place may be considered abstractedly from any particular thing that may be in it. Every series or succession of things, suggests the idea of time; and time may be considered abstractedly from any series of succession. In the same manner, we acquire the abstract term motion, rest, number, and a thousand other abstract terms; an excellent contrivance for improving speech, as without it speech would be wofully imperfect. Brute animals may have some obscure notion of these circumstances, as connected with particular objects: an ox probably perceives that he takes longer time to go round a long ridge in the plough, than a short one; and he probably perceives when he is one of four in the yoke, or only one of two. But the power of abstraction is not bestowed on brute animals; because to them it would be altogether useless, as they are incapable of speech.

40. This power of abstraction is of great utility. A carpenter considers a log of wood with regard to hardness, firmness, color, and texture: a philosopher, neglecting these properties, makes the log undergo a chemical analysis; and examines its taste, its smell, and its component principles: the geometrician confines his reasoning to the figure, the length, breadth, and thickness. In general, every artist, abstracting from all other properties, confines his observations to those which have a more immediate connection with his profession.

41. It is observed above, p. 478, that there can be no such thing as a general idea; that all our perceptions are of particular objects, and that our secondary perceptions or ideas must be equally so. Precisely, for the same reason, there can be no such thing as an abstract idea. We cannot form an idea of a part without taking in the whole; nor of motion, color, figure, independent of a body. No man will say that he can form any idea of beauty, till he think of a person endued with that quality; nor that he can form an idea of weight, till he takes under consideration a body that is weighty. And when he takes under consideration a body endued with one or other of the properties mentioned, the idea he forms is not an abstract or general idea, but the idea of a particular body with its properties. But though a part and the whole, a subject and its attributes, an effect and its cause, are so intimately connected, as that an idea cannot be formed of the one independent of the other; yet we can reason upon the one abstracting from the other.

This is done by words signifying the thing to which the reasoning is confined; and such words are denominated abstract terms. The meaning and use of an abstract term is well understood, though of itself, unless other particulars be taken in, it raises no image nor idea in the mind. In language it serves excellent purpose; by it different figures, different colors, can be compared, without the trouble of conceiving them as belonging to any particular subject; and they contribute with words significant to raise images or ideas in the mind.

42. The power of abstraction is bestowed on man, for the purpose solely of reasoning. It tends greatly to the facility as well as clearness of any process of reasoning, that, laying aside every other circumstance, we can confine our attention to 'he ingle property we desire to investigate.

43. Abstract terms may be separated into three different kinds, all equally subservient to the reasoning faculty. Individuals appear to have no end; and did we not possess the faculty of distributing them into classes, the mind would be lost in an endless maze, and no progress be made in knowledge. It is by the faculty of abstraction that we distribute beings into genera and species: finding a number of individuals connected by certain qualities common to all, we give a name to these individuals considered as thus connected, which name, by gathering them together into one class, serves to express the whole of these individuals as distinct from others. Thus the word animal serves to denote every being that can move voluntarily; and the words man, horse, lion, &c. answer similar purposes. This is the first and most common sort of abstraction; and it is of the most extensive use, by enabling us to comprehend in our reasoning whole kinds and sorts, instead of individuals, without end. The next sort of abstract terms comprehends a number of individual objects, considered as connected by some occasional relation. A great number of persons collected in one place, without any other relation than merely that of contiguity, are denominated a crowd: in forming this term, we abstract from sex, from age, from condition, from dress, &c. A number of persons connected by the same laws and by the same government, are termed a nation: and a number of men under the same military command, are termed an army. A third sort of abstraction is, where a single property or part, which may be common to many individuals, is selected to be the subject of our contemplation; for example, whiteness, heat, beauty, length, roundness, head, arm.

44. Abstract terms are a happy invention: it is by their means chief ly, that the particulars which make the subject of our reasoning are brought into close union, and separated from all others however naturally connected. Without the aid of such terms, the mind could never be kept steady to its proper subject, but be perpetually in hazard of assuming foreign circumstances, or neglecting what are essential. We can, without the aid of language, compare real objects by intuition, when these objects are present; and when absent, we can compare them in idea. But when we advance farther, and attempt to make inferences and draw conclusions, we always employ abstract terms, even in thinking; it would be as difficult to reason without them, as to perforin operations in algebra without signs; for there is scarcely any reasoning without some degree of abstraction, and we cannot easily abstract without using abstract terms. Hence it follows, that without language man would scarcely be a rational being.

45. The same thing, in different respects, has different names. With respect to certain qualities, it is termed a substance; with respect to other qualities, a body; and with respect to qualities of all sorts, a subject. It is termed a passive subject with respect to an action exerted upon it; an object with respect to a percipient: a cause with respect to the effect it produces; and an effect with respect to its cause.

INDEX.

manner in architecture, 119. The si- | Base, of a column, 462.
tuation of a great house ought to be Basso-relievo, 460.
lofty, 166. A playhouse or a music- Batrachomuomachia, censured, 179.
room susceptible of much ornament, Beauty, ch. iii. Intrinsic and relative,
167. What emotions can be raised 103. 449. Beauty of simplicity, 104.
by architecture, 443. Its emotions of figure, ib., of the circle, 105. of the
compared with those of gardening, ib. square, ib., of a regular polygon, 106.
Every building ought to have an ex- of a parallelogram, ib., of an equila-
pression suited to its destination, 444. teral triangle, ib. Whether beauty is
457. Simplicity ought to be the go- a primary or secondary quality of ob-
verning taste, 443. Regularity to be jects, 107. Beauty distinguished from
studied, 445. 454. External form of
grandeur, 110. Beauty of natural
dwelling-houses, 452, 453. Divisions
colors, 161. Beauty distinguished
within, 453. 458, 459. A palace ought from congruity, 166. Consummate
to be regular, but in a small house beauty seldom produces a constant
convenience ought to be preferred, lover, 199. Wherein consists the
452, 453. A dwelling-house ought to beauty of the human visage, 204.
be suited to the climate, 454. Con- Beauty proper and figurative, 482.
gruity ought to be studied, 457. Ar- Behavior, gross and refined, 62.
chitecture governed by principles that Belief, of the reality of external objects,
produce opposite effects, 459, 460. 51. Enforced by a lively narrative,
Different ornaments employed in it, or a good historical painting, 56, 57.
459, 460. Witticisms in architecture, Influenced by passion, 87. 361. In-
464. Allegorical or emblematical or- fluenced by propensity, 88. Influ-
naments, ib. Architecture inspires a enced by affection, ib.
taste for neatness and regularity, 465. Benevolence operates in conjunction
Ariosto, censured, 160. 430.
with self-love to make us happy, 97.
Aristæus, the episode of Aristaus in the Benevolence inspired by gardening,
Georgics censured, 323.
Aristotle, censured, 477, note.
Army, defined, 488.
Arrangement, the best arrangement of
words is to place them if possible in
an increasing series, 252. Arrange-
ment of members in a period, ib. Of
periods in a discourse, 253. Ambi-
guity from wrong arrangement, 270.
273. Arrangement natural and in-
verted, 280, 281.
Articulate sounds, how far agreeable,
248. 250.

451.

Berkeley, censured, 477, note.
Blank verse, 298. 315. Its aptitude for
inversion, 317. Its melody, ib. How
far proper in tragedy, 428.
Body, defined, 475.
Boileau, censured, 360. 417.
Bombast, 124. Bombast in action, 126.
Bossu, censured, 432, note.
Burlesque, machinery does well in a
burlesque poem, 57. Burlesque dis-
tinguished into two kinds, 179.
Business, men of middle age best quali-
fied for it, 152,

490

Chinese, gardens, 450. Wonder and | Complexion, what colour of dress is the
most suitable to different complexions,
surprise studied in them, 451.
148.
Choreus, 323.
Choriambus, 324.

Chorus, an essential part of the Grecian
tragedy, 433.

Church, what ought to be its form and
situation, 458.

Cicero censured, 280. 287. 290.
Cid, of Corneille censured, 221.233.
Cinna, of Corneille censured, 168. 219.
232.

Circle, its beauty, 105.
Circumstances, in a period, where they
should be placed, 273. 275.
Class, all living creatures distributed
into classes, 470, 471.

In

Climax, in sense, 116. 220. 278.
sound, 253. When these are joined,
the sentence is delightful, 286.
Cophores, of Eschylus censured, 203.
Coexistent emotions and passions,67,&c.
Colonnade, where proper, 454.
Color, gold and silver esteemed for their
A secondary
beautiful colors, 104.
quality, 59. Natural colors, 161. Co-
loring of the human face, exquisite, ib.
Columns, every column ought to have a
base, 94. The base ought to be
square, 95. Columns admit different
What emo-
proportions, 456 458.
tions they raise, 458. Column more
Its
beautiful than a pilaster, 462.
form, ib. Five orders of columns, ib.
Capital of the Corinthian order cen-
sured, 463.
Comedy, double plot in a comedy, 425,
426. Modern manners do best in
comedy, 420. Immorality of English
comedy, 36.

Conception, defined, 475.

Concord, or harmony in objects of
sight, 69.

Concordant sounds, defined, 67.
Congreve, censured, 37. 180. 207. note.
428.
A

Congruity and propriety, chap. x.

secondary relation, 165, note. Con-
gruity distinguished from beauty, 166.
Distinguished from propriety, ib. As
to quantity, congruity coincides with
proportion, 170.
Connection essential in all composi-
tions, 23.

Conquest of Granada, of Dryden cen-
sured, 234.
Consonants, 249.
Constancy, consummate beauty the
cause of inconstancy, 199.
Construction, of language explained,
264, &c.
Contemplation, when painful, 156.
Contempt, raised by improper action,

138.

Contrast, chap. viii. Its effect in lan-
guage, 251. In a series of objects,
252. Contrast in the thought requires
contrast in the members of the expres-
sion, 251. The effect of contrast in
gardening, 450.
Conviction, intuitive. See Intuitive Con-

viction.

Copulative, to drop the copulative en-
livens the expression, 264, &c.
Coriolanus, of Shakspeare censured,
234.

Comet, motion of the comets and planets
128.
compared with respect to beauty,
Commencement, of a work ought to be
modest and simple, 39.
Common nature, in every species of
animals, 60. 467. We have a convic-
tion that this common nature is inva-
riable, 468. Also that it is perfect or
right, 60. 468.
Common sense, 467. 473.
Communication of passion to related
objects. See Passion.
Communication of qualities to related
objects. See Propensity.
Comparison, 140, &c. ch. xix. In the
early composition of all nations, com-
parisons are carried beyond proper
bounds, 325. Comparisons that re-
solve into a play of words, 343.
Complex emotion, 68, &c.
Complex object, its power to generate
passion, 45. 122.
Complex perception, 479.

Corneille, censured, 219. 229. 240. 243.
Corporeal pleasure, 11-13. Low and
sometimes mean, 174.

Rules for its composi

Couplet, 298.
tion, 316.
Courage, of greater dignity than jus-
tice, 174.
Creticus, 324.

Criminal, the hour of execution seems to
him to approach with a swift pace, 89.
Criticism, its advantages, 14, 15. Its
terms not accurately defined, 212.
Crowd, defined, 485.
Curiosity, 131. 139, &c.
Custom and habit, ch. xiv. Renders
objects familiar, 131. Custom distin-
Custom
guished from habit, 193.
puts the rich and poor upon a level,
201. Taste in the fine arts improved
by custom, 472, note.

Dactyle, 324.
Davila, censured, 159.
Declensions, explained, 267.