NewThoughtLibrary.com / DivineLibrary.org

be sorted and put in its place. Language is the medium of this great transformation under the constructive force of tho judgment.

No sooner in the use of language was a name annexed to an object, than, by virtue of resemblances discerned though not defined between this object and other objects, the word began to enlarge its application, and to include many things within a vague circumference of likeness. This movement is so normal to the human mind, that many nouns doubtless never had a very distinct use as proper nouns; and many proper nouns began at once to expand into common nouns. The fixedness of the proper noun grows up with the fixedness of the common noun. It is quite too much to assert that all common nouns have been proper nouns, simply because this expansion in the beginning would be the prevailing line of growth. Trees seen in a grove, birds seen in flocks, and animals encountered in troops, would be named collectively or rather as a class. As words enlarged their meaning, other words would be called for under the wants of men to designate things more narrowly, and so a counter movement of restricted definition would arise. Classification would thus proceed by accident, under the variable interests and inclinations of men.

But no sooner is the mind awakened to its own processes, than all this is altered. Classes are distinctly formed and put in definite relations to each other. Among all comparable objects proper nouns are extended, and- each held fast; and thus the purposes of thought and expression are subserved with increasing clearness and thoroughness. Much discussion has been had as to the precise significancy of this growth of knowledge by the mediation of language. How far are the results in the things themselves, and how far in the mind? What are the things expressed by words? If we take any common noun, as stone, the discussion is