It is to be borne in mind that, as a minor proportion of mere Things are
raised to the dignity of wearing Proper Names, so, on the other hand,
Men, though appropriately distinguished by prenomens and cognomens, may
also sink to the character of Things, and be mentioned by class-names.
Thus it is that throughout Nature one domain overlaps another domain,
and all of our discriminations, though made in terms as if absolute,
signify, in fact, merely the _preponderance_; thus, when we say, that
Proper Names apply to the Human Domain, that is true _in preponderance_,
but not absolutely or exclusively; and when we say that Common Names
apply to Things below Persons, the statement is true _in preponderance_,
but not absolutely or exclusively.
Proper Names--The Human World in Language--are, in the next place,
distinguished by Gender, as that word itself is distinguished by Sex. By
the principle of Overlapping, above explained, this distinction of
Gender or Sex descends in a minor degree into the Thing World; in a
large degree to the Animal World below man: in less degree to the
Vegetable World; and in the least degree to the Mineral and Abstract
World. But characteristically and predominatingly, Sex is predicated of
Humanity, where it is developed in its highest perfection; and in the
same degree Gender in Grammar is, in predominance, confined to the
Proper Nouns Substantive. Masculine and Feminine are the only Proper
Genders. Neuter Gender means of _neither_ Gender, and includes the great
mass of Common Nouns, or the Thing World, as distinguished from
Personality.
Reversing the order, and resuming the above discriminations in the two
domains, Language and the Universe, they are as follows:
_Language. Universe._
{MASCULINE. {MALE.
PROPER-NOUN-DOM{ PERSON-DOM{
{Feminine. {Female.