An introductory text-book of logic - Mellone, Sydney - Rare Books at ...

AND THE LAWS OF THOUGHT. 31
standing (Bk. III. ch xi.) :
" He
that should well con
sider the errors and obscurity, the mistakes and con
fusion, that are spread in the world by an ill use of
words, will find some reason to doubt whether language,
as it has been employed, has contributed more to the
improvement or hindrance of knowledge amongst man
kind. How many are there that, when they would
think on things, fix their thoughts only on words,
especially when they would apply their minds to moral
matters ; and who then can wonder if the results of
such contemplations and reasonings, whilst the ideas
they annex to them are very confused and very un
steady, or perhaps none at all, who can wonder, I
say, that such thoughts and reasonings should end in
nothing but obscurity and mistake, without any clear
judgment or knowledge ? This inconvenience in an ill
use of words men suffer in their own private medita
tions ; but how much more manifest are the discords
which follow from it in conversation, discourse, and
arguments with others. For language being the great
conduit whereby men convey their discoveries, reason
ings, and knowledge from one to another ; he that
makes an ill use of it, though he does not corrupt the
fountains of knowledge which are in things themselves ;
yet he does, as much as in him lies, break or stop the
use and
pipes whereby it is distributed to the public
advantage of mankind."
The only remedy for this condition of things is to
realise clearly what are the ideas for which words stand,
and to take care that for each term there shall always be
the same definite idea.
Some logicians have proposed to give a wider meaning
to "connotation," and to understand by it, all the known
qualities of the thing, or (if the term denotes a class) all