CHAPTER V.
THE CLASSIFICATION OF PROPOSITIONS Sec.1.Logicians classify Propositions according to Quantity, Quality, Relation and Modality.
As to Quantity, propositions are either Universal or Particular; that is to say, the predicate is affirmed or denied either of the whole subject or of a part of it--of _All_ or of _Some S_.
_All S is P_ (that is, _P_ is predicated of _all S_).
_Some S is P_ (that is, _P_ is predicated of _some S_).
An Universal Proposition may have for its subject a singular term, a collective, a general term distributed, or an abstract term.
(1) A proposition having a singular term for its subject, as _The Queen has gone to France_, is called a Singular Proposition; and some Logicians regard this as a third species of proposition with respect to quantity, distinct from the Universal and Particular; but that is needless.
(2) A collective term may be the subject, as _The Black Watch is ordered to India_.

In this case, as well as in singular propositions, a predication is made concerning the whole subject as a whole.
(3) The subject may be a general term taken in its full denotation, as _All apes are sagacious_; and in this case a Predication is made concerning the whole subject distributively; that is, of each and everything the subject stands for.
(4) Propositions whose subjects are abstract terms, though they may seem to be formally Singular, are really as to their meaning distributive Universals; since whatever is true of a quality is true of whatever thing has that quality so far as that quality is concerned.
_Truth will prevail_ means that _All true propositions are accepted at last_ (by sheer force of being true, in spite of interests, prejudices, ignorance and indifference).

To bear this in mind may make one cautious in the use of abstract terms.
In the above paragraphs a distinction is implied between Singular and Distributive Universals; but, technically, every term, whether subject or predicate, when taken in its full denotation (or universally), is said to be 'distributed,' although this word, in its ordinary sense, would be directly applicable only to general terms.

In the above examples, then, 'Queen,' 'Black Watch,' 'apes,' and 'truth' are all distributed terms.

Indeed, a simple definition of the Universal Proposition is 'one whose subject is distributed.' A Particular Proposition is one that has a general term for its subject, whilst its predicate is not affirmed or denied of everything the subject denotes; in other words, it is one whose subject is not distributed: as _Some lions inhabit Africa_.
In ordinary discourse it is not always explicitly stated whether predication is universal or particular; it would be very natural to say _Lions inhabit Africa_, leaving it, as far as the words go, uncertain whether we mean _all_ or _some_ lions.