WIT and HUMOUR

while humour does not; humour is chiefly relished by the vulgar, but education is requisite to comprehend wit.1

Lord Shaftesbury has an Essay on the Freedom of Wit and Humour.2

ZOONOMY (?wov, animal; vóμos, law). — That department of knowledge which ascertains the laws of organic life. Dr. Darwin published a well-known work under this title, in which he classifies the facts belonging to animal life, and by comparing them seeks to unravel the theory of diseases.

1 Taylor, Synonyms.

• Characteristicks, vol. i.

VOCABULARY

OF

THE PHILOSOPHICAL SCIENCES.

A. 1. In Logic, the Symbol of general affirmative propositions. Asserit A, negat. E, verum generaliter ambo;

Asserit I, negat. O, sed particulariter ambo.

A and I are the vowels of affirmo: E and O of nego.-See
Barbara, Proposition and Syllogism.

2. In Complex and Modal propositions, the affirmation of the mode and of the proposition.-Aristotle.1 Port Royal Logic.

3. Symbol of the Absolute. A cipal of Absolute Identity.

A expresses the prin

ABDERITISM, from the citizens of Abdera, renowned for their stupidity: in Kant,3 moral A., the theory that the human race will never advance beyond its present moral state. *ABDUCTION, in Logic. ABERRANCE, ABERRANCY, ABERRANT (in Biology), ABERRATION (Lat.), all mark wandering, deviation from what is sound, normal, typical, or standard.-Sir T. Browne,* Ch. Darwin,' Glanville, Sir H. Holland,' T. V. Wollaston. *ABILITY and INABILITY — (NATURAL AND MORAL). *Ability Natural. *Inability Natural. *Ability Moral.—“ Sufficiency of ethical motive for the fulfil

ment of all ethical law."-C. F. V.

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*Inability Moral.-" Deficiency in ethical motive consequent upon want of harmony between personal inclination and moral requirements."-C. F. V.

1 Prior Analytics. 2 Transl. by J. S. Baynes, p. ii., ch. 3. a Streit d. Facultäten, 134, seq. Vulgar Errors, 189, iv. 12. Origin of Species, ch. 13, vi. 202. • Scepsis Scientifica, ch. 11. 16. ▾ Mental Physiology, vi. 114. 117. 8 Variation of Species, 2, 3. 15.

ABNORMAL (Lat.), departing from a law, type, or standard.

Darwin,1

ABORIGINAL (Lat.), in Psychology, original, in the primitive condition. Herbert Spencer.2

ABORTIVE (Lat.), in Biology, prematurely born, failing of its ends, or of complete development. - Whewell."

ABROGATION (abrogo, to recall) is the annulling or recalling of a law. F. V. 3.

*ABSOLUTE.-"Properly, self-sufficient, independent both in nature and in action." - C. F. V.

"The term absolute is of twofold (if not threefold) antiquity, corresponding to the double (or treble) signification of the word in Latin. 1. Absolutum means what is freed or loosed; in which sense the absolute will be what is aloof from relation, comparison, limitation, dependence, etc., and is thus tantamount to rồ áróðurov of the lower Greeks. In this meaning the Absolute is not opposed to the Infinite. 2. Absolutum means finished, perfected, completed; in which sense the Absolute will be what is out of relation, etc., as finished, perfect, complete, total, and thus corresponds to rò λov, and Tò TéλεIOV of Aristotle. In this acceptation (and it is that in which I invariably use it) the Absolute is diametrically opposed to, is contradictory of, the Infinite." — Sir W. Hamilton."

"By the Absolute, is meant that which exists in and by itself, having no necessary relation to any other being. By the Infinite is meant that which is free from all possible limitation; that than which a greater is inconceivable, and which, consequently, can receive no additional attribute or mode of existence, which it had not from all eternity."- Mansel.

"The plain and etymological meaning of the term is freed or loosed, and hence it means freed from restriction or condition. In this sense it is evident that the Infinite must be absolute, for that which is not limited does not afford the possibility of restriction. This is the sense in which philosophers have uniformly used the word; and in this sense Sir W. Hamilton admits that 'the Absolute is not opposed to the Infinite.' - Calderwood." *Absolute (Unconditioned, Infinite).-See Reid, J. S. Mill, Tennemann,10 Whewell."

*Abstinence.

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1Origin of Species, ch. 1. 2 Psychology, vi. 130. 3 Hist. 3 Hist. of Scientific Ideas, b. vii., ch. 1. • Novum Organon, bk. ii., 26. Discussions, p. 14, note. ↳ ¤ Limits of Religious Thought, P. 45. Phil. of Infinite, 2 ed., p. 165. 8 Intellectual Powers, essay v., ch. 3. Logic, i. 2,7. 10 Hist. Philos. (Johnson's Translation), § 390. 11 Hist. Scientif. Ideas, 60.