as the name of any other things; which qualities and characteristics are said to be implied or connoted by the term.  Thus ‘sheep’ is the name of certain animals, and its connotation prevents its being used of any others.  That which a term directly indicates, then, is its Denotation; that sense or customary use of it which limits the Denotation is its Connotation (ch. iv.).  Hamilton and others use ‘Extension’ in the sense of Denotation, and ‘Intension’ or ‘Comprehension’ in the sense of Connotation.  Now, terms may be classified, first according to what they stand for or denote; that is, according to their Denotation.  In this respect, the use of a term is said to be either Concrete or Abstract.

A term is Concrete when it denotes a ‘thing’; that is, any person, object, fact, event, feeling or imagination, considered as capable of having (or consisting of) qualities and a determinate existence.  Thus ‘cricket ball’ denotes any object having a certain size, weight, shape, colour, etc. (which are its qualities), and being at any given time in some place and related to other objects—­in the bowler’s hands, on the grass, in a shop window.  Any ‘feeling of heat’ has a certain intensity, is pleasurable or painful, occurs at a certain time, and affects some part or the whole of some animal.  An imagination, indeed (say, of a fairy), cannot be said in the same sense to have locality; but it depends on the thinking of some man who has locality, and is definitely related to his other thoughts and feelings.

A term is Abstract, on the other hand, when it denotes a quality (or qualities), considered by itself and without determinate existence in time, place, or relation to other things.  ‘Size,’ ‘shape,’ ‘weight,’ ‘colour,’ ‘intensity,’ ‘pleasurableness,’ are terms used to denote such qualities, and are then abstract in their denotation.  ‘Weight’ is not something with a determinate existence at a given time; it exists not merely in some particular place, but wherever there is a heavy thing; and, as to relation, at the same moment it combines in iron with solidity and in mercury with liquidity.  In fact, a quality is a point of agreement in a multitude of different things; all heavy things agree in weight, all round things in roundness, all red things in redness; and an abstract term denotes such a point (or points) of agreement among the things denoted by concrete terms.  Abstract terms result from the analysis of concrete things into their qualities; and conversely a concrete term may be viewed as denoting the synthesis of qualities into an individual thing.  When several things agree in more than one quality, there may be an abstract term denoting the union of qualities in which they agree, and omitting their peculiarities; as ‘human nature’ denotes the common qualities of men, ‘civilisation’ the common conditions of civilised peoples.