From the simple meaning of companion again it comes to denote vaguely a person, as in the question “What fellow is that?" but then there is a curious confusion of depreciatory and endearing power in the word; when a man is called a mere fellow, or simply a fellow in a particular tone of voice, the name is one of severe contempt; alter the tone of voice or the connected words in the least degree, and it becomes one of the most sweet and en dearing appellations, as when we speak of a dear or good fellow. We may still add the technical meanings of the name as applied in the case of a Fellow of a College, or of a learned society.

Another good instance of the growth of a number of different meanings from a single root is found in the word post. Originally a post was something posited, or placed firmly in the ground, such as an upright piece of wood or stone; such meaning still remains in the cases of a lamp-post, a gate-post, signal-post, &c. As a post would often be used to mark a fixed spot of ground, as in a mile-post, it came to mean the fixed or appointed place where the post was placed, as in a military post, the post of danger or honour, &c. The fixed places where horses were kept in readiness to facilitate rapid travelling during the times of the Roman empire were thus called posts, and thence the whole system of arrangement for the conveyance of persons or news came to be called the posts. The name has retained an exactly similar meaning to the present day in most parts of Europe, and we still use it in post-chaise, post-boy, post-horse and postillion. A system of post conveyance for letters having been organised for about two centuries in England and other countries, this is perhaps the meaning most closely associated with the word post at present, and a number of expressions have thus arisen, such as post-office, postage, postalguide, postman, postmaster, postal-telegraph, &c. Curi

ously enough we now have iron letter-posts, in which the word post is restored exactly to its original meaning.

Although the words described above were selected on account of the curious variety of their meanings, I do not hesitate to assert that the majority of common nouns possess various meanings in greater or less number. Dr Watts, in his Logic, suggests that the words book, bible, fish, house, and elephant, are univocal terms, but the reader would easily detect ambiguities in each of them. Thus fish bears a very different meaning in natural history from what it does in the mouths of unscientific persons, who include under it not only true fishes, but shellfish or mollusca, and the cetacea, such as whales and seals, in short all swimming animals, whether they have the character of true fish or not. Elephant, in a stationer's or bookseller's shop, means a large kind of paper instead of a large animal. Bible sometimes means any particular copy of the Bible, sometimes the collection of works constituting the Holy Scriptures. The word man is singularly ambiguous; sometimes it denotes man as distinguished from woman; at other times it is certainly used to include both sexes; and in certain recent election cases lawyers were unable to decide whether the word man as used in the Reform Act of 1867 ought or ought not to be interpreted so as to include women. On other occasions man is used to denote an adult male as distinguished from a boy, and it also often denotes one who is emphatically a man as possessing a masculine character. Occasionally it is used in the same way as groom, for a servant, as in the proverb, "Like master, like man." At other times it stands specially for a husband.

3. Among ambiguous words we must thirdly distinguish those which derive their various meanings in a somewhat different manner, namely by analogy or real resemblance.

When we speak of a sweet taste, a sweet flower, a sweet tune, a sweet landscape, a sweet face, a sweet poem, it is evident that we apply one and the same word to very different things; such a concrete thing as lump-sugar can hardly be compared directly with such an intellectual existence as Tennyson's May Queen. Nevertheless if the word sweet is to be considered ambiguous, it is in a different way from those we have before considered, because all the things are called sweet on account of a peculiar pleasure which they yield, which cannot be described otherwise than by comparison with sugar. In a similar way, we describe a pain as sharp, a disappointment as bitter, a person's temper as sour, the future as bright or gloomy, an achievement as brilliant; all these adjectives implying comparison with bodily sensations of the simplest kind. The adjective brilliant is derived from the French briller, to glitter or sparkle; and this meaning it fully retains when we speak of a brilliant diamond, a brilliant star, &c. By what a subtle analogy is it that we speak of a brilliant position, a brilliant achievement, brilliant talents, brilliant style! We cannot speak of a clear explanation, indefatigable perseverance, perspicuous style, or sore calamity, without employing in each of these expressions a double analogy to physical impressions, actions, or events. It will be shewn in the sixth Lesson that to this process we owe the creation of all names connected with mental feelings or existences.

Read Watts' Logic, Chapter IV.

Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding, Book III.
Chapters IX. and x,

LESSON V.

OF THE TWOFOLD MEANING OF TERMSIN EXTENSION AND INTENSION.

THERE is no part of the doctrines of Logic to which I would more urgently request the attention of the reader than to that which I will endeavour to explain clearly in the present Lesson. I speak of the double meaning' which is possessed by most logical terms-the meaning in extension, and the meaning in intension, I believe that the reader who once acquires a thorough apprehension of the difference of these meanings, and learns to bear it always in mind, will experience but little further difficulty in the study of logic.

The meaning of a term in extension consists of the objects to which the term may be applied; its meaning in intension consists of the qualities which are necessarily possessed by objects bearing that name. A simple example will make this distinction most apparent. What is the meaning of the name "metal"? The first and most obvious answer is that metal means either gold, or silver, or iron, or copper, or aluminium, or some other of the 48 substances known to chemists, and considered to have a metallic nature. These substances then form the plain and common meaning of the name, which is the meaning in extension. But if it be asked why the name is applied to all these substances and these only, the answer must be-Because they possess certain qualities which belong to the nature of metal. We cannot, therefore, know to what substances we may apply the name, or to what we

may not, unless we know the qualities which are indispensable to the character of a metal. Now chemists lay these down to be somewhat as follows:-(1) A metal must be an element or simple substance incapable of decomposition or separation into simpler substances by any known means. (2) It must be a good conductor of heat and electricity. (3) It must possess a great and peculiar reflective power known as metallic lustre*.

These properties are common to all metals, or nearly all metals, and are what mark out and distinguish a metal from other substances. Hence they form in a certain way the meaning of the name metal, the meaning in intension, as it is called, to distinguish it from the former kind of meaning.

In a similar manner almost any other common name has a double meaning. "Steamship" denotes in extension the Great Eastern, the Persia, the Himalaya, or any one of the thousands of steamships existing or which have existed; in intension it means "a vessel propelled by steam-power." Monarch is the name of Queen Victoria, Victor Emmanuel, Louis Napoleon, or any one of a considerable number of persons who rule singly over countries; the persons themselves form the meaning in extension; the quality of ruling alone forms the intensive meaning of the name. Animal is the name in extension of any one of billions of existing creatures and of indefinitely greater numbers of other creatures that have existed or will exist; in intension it implies in all those creatures the existence of a certain animal life and sense, or at least the power of digesting food and exerting force, which are the marks of animal nature.

It is doubtfully true that all metals possess metallic lustre, and chemists would find it very difficult to give any consistent explanation of their use of the name; but the statements in the text are sufficiently true to furnish an example.