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GENERAL, fomething that comprehends all, or extends
to a whole Genus. See GENUS; fee alfO UNiTVERSAL.
Thus we fay, a General, Rule, q. d. an uniirerfAl Rule,
A general Lofs,&e5c. 'Tis difputed, whether Noah's Flood
was general, or no. See DELUGE.
All the Sciences have fome general Principles, or Maxims.
See MAXIM. A general Court: General Councils are par-
ticularly called Oecumenical. See OECUMENICAL.
GENERAL Jque, in Law; fee ISSUE.
General is particularly applied to divers Officers and Dig-
nitaries.
States GENERAL,            r (STATES.
GENERAL Council, :.    i    OECUMENICAL.
GENERAL Aigembly,          I ASSEMBLY;
Vicar GENERAL, FeC. j      IVICAR.
GENERAL Officers, in an Army, are th6fe *ho do not
only command over a fingle Company, or Regiment; but
whofe Office and Authority extends over a Body of feveral
Regiments of Horfe, and Foot.
Such are Lieutenant Generals, Majer Generals, Generals
of the Horfe, of the Foot; Paymaster General, Commi/fary
General, Chirurgeon General, &c.
The Word is alfo now ufed in a more extenfive Senfe;
and comprehends fuch as may command, by virtue of their
Rank, over feveral Bodies of Forces, tho' all of the fame
Kind; in which Senfe Brigadiers are General Officers;
notwithilanding that they are attach'd to one kind of Forces,
either Infantry, or Cavalry, See BRIGADIER.
The Pay of a Lieutenant General, when in Service, is
4 1. per Day: Of a Major General, a 1. Of a Brigadier
General, x l. Io s. Of a Captain General, io 1. See LIEu-
TENANT General, MAJOR General, &c.
We have alfo Officers in the Law, in the Revenues, FSc.
diffinguifli'd by the Appellation of General: As, Attorney
General, Solicitor General, &c. See ATTORNEY, and So-
LICITOR.
Receiver General, Controller General, &c. See RECEIVER,
and CONTROLLER.
GENERAL is alfo ufed in a Monaflic Senfe, for the Chief
of an Order* or of all the Houfes,or Congregations efcablifh'd
under the fame Rule. Thus we fay, the General of the
Ciftercians, the Francifcans, &c. See ORDER.
Fa. 71hotnali'n derives the Origin of Generals of Orders,
from the Privileges granted by the antient Patriarchs to the
Monafferies fituate in their capital Cities.  By fuch means
they were exempted from the Jurifdi&ion of the Bifhop,
and immediately fubjecqed to that of the Patriarch alone.
GENERAL is alfo ufed in the Military Art for a particular
March, or Beat of Drum.
To beat the General, is to give Notice to the Infantry to
march. See DRUM.
GENERAL Terms, or Words, are fuch as cxprefs, or de-
note general Ideas. See WORD.
Ideas become general, by Separating from them, the Cir-
cumnfances of Time, Place, or any other Ideas that may de-
termine them to this or that particular Exiflence. See IDEA.
By this way of Abflrac~tion they become capable of re-
prefentin more Individuals, than one; each of which hav-
ing a Conformity to that abflrac1 Idea, is of that Sort. See
ABSTRACTION, INDIVIDUAL, &C.
All Things, Mr. Lock obferves, that exift, being Particu-
lars, it might be expeaed, that Words Ihould be fo too in
their Signification: KBut we find it quite contrary ; for moil
of the Words, that make all Languages, are general Terms.
This is the Effe1   of Reafon and Necefflty: For, tO It
is impoffible that every particular Thing lhould have a di.
flin&, peculiar Name; becaufe it is impoffible to have di-
flina Ideas of every particular Thing, to retain its Name
with its peculiar Appropriation to that Idea. 2z It would
be ufelefs, unlefs all could be fuppofed to have thefe fame
Ideas in their Minds: For Names, applied to particular
Things, whereof one alone has the Ideas in his Mind, could
not be fignificant or intelligible to another, who is not ac-
quainted with all thofe particular Things which had fallen
under his Notice. 30 it would be of no great ufe for the
Improvement of Knowledge; which, tho' founded in par-
ticular Things, enlarges itelf by general Views, to which
Things, reduced into Sorts under general Names, are pro-
perly fubfervient.
In Things. where we have occafion to confider and dif-
courfe of Individuals, and Particulars, we ufe proper Names:
As- in Perfons, Countries, Cities, Rivers, Mountains, Cec.
Thus wee fee that Jockeys have particular Names for their
1Horfes, becaufe they have often occafion to mention this or
that Horfe particularly, when he is out of fight.
The firfm Ideas Children get, are only particular, as of the
Nurfe, or Mother; and the Names they give them, are
confined to thefe Individuals: Afterwards, obferving, that
there are a great many other Things in the World that re-
femble them in Shape, and other Qualities, they frame an
Idea, which they find thofe many Particulars do partake in;
to that they give, with others, the Name, Man* for Ex-
G".t 1N
Ini pie. In this ithiey make nothing hew, bilt Ily lekate At
of the complex Idea they had of 'Peter, 7ames, Mary, &cE
that which i peculiar to each, and retain only what is com-
mon to all. Ahd thus they come to have a general Nad ef
and a general Idea.
By the fame Method they advance to more giird
Names and Notions: For, obferving feveral Things that
difet from their Idea of Man, and which cannot, therefore,
be comprehended under that Name, to agree with Man id
fome certain Qualities; by retaining only thofe Qualities,
and uniting them into one Idea, they have another, more
general Idea to which, giving a Name, they make a Ternm
of a more compiehenfive Extenfion.
Thus, by leaving out the Shape, and fome other Proper-
ties fignified by the Name, Man * ahd retaining only Body;
with Life, Senfe, and Spontaneous Motion; we form the
Idea fignified by the Name Animal. After the fame mnan-
ner, the Mind proceeds to Body, Subflance, and at laPt hi
Being, Thing, and fuch univerfal Terms, which iand for
any Ideas whatfoever, See ENS, EssE, &c.
Hence we fee the whole Myfiery of Genus and Speciei,
is nothing but abflra& Ideas, more or lefs comprehenfive;
with Names annexed to them: This fhews us the Reafon'
why in defining Wotds, we make ufe of the Genus ; name-
ly, to fave the Labour of enumerating the feveral fimple
Ideas, which the next general Term ftands for. -
From what has been faid, it is plain, that Gener'al and
Univerfal belong not to the real Exillence of Things; but are
the Inventions of the Underflanding, made by it for its
own Ufe, and concerns only Signs, either Words, or Ideas.
See UNIVERSAL.
General Words do not barely fignify one 'articularThing, >
for then they would not be general Terms; but propet
Names: Neither do they fignify a Plurality; for then Mari
and Men would fignify the fame thing; but what they figz-
nify, is a fort of Things: And this they do, by being made
a Sign of an abflra& Idea in the Mind, to which hMX, LS
Things exifling are found to agree, fo they come to be
ranked under that Name, or to be of that fort.
The Eilences then of the Sorts, or Species of Things, at;*
nothing but thefe abflraa Ideas. See ABSTRACT.
It is not denied here, that Nature makes Things alike 4
and fo lays the Foundation of this forting and claffing: But
the Sorts or Species themfelves are the Workmanfhip of
human Underflanding; fo that every diflina abflraa Idea;
is a diffin& Efrence; and the Names that fland for fuch
diflinft Ideas, are the Names of Things euntially different:
Thus Oval, Circle, Rain and Snow are effentially different.
See this further illufirated under EssENCE, SUBSTANCE, tC.
GENERALISSIMO, call'd alfo Captain G EN ER A L, and
fimply, the GENERAL; 5is an Officer, who commands all
the military Powers of the Nation; who gives Orders to all
the other General Officers; and receives no Orders himfelf
but from the King.
-Moef. 1alzac obferves, that the Cardinal de Ricbelieza
firft made this Word, of his own abfolute Authority, upon
his going to command the French Army in Italy.
GEN.ERATED, or GENI TED, is ufed in Maihensaticksi
for whatever is produced, either in Arithrmyetick, by the'
Multiplication, Divifion, or Extraaion of Roots; or in Geo-'
n-ietry, by the Invention of the Contents, Areas, and Sides
or of extreme and mean Proportionals, without arithmetical
Addition, and Sub1lradion.-
GENERATING Line, or Figutre, in Geometry, is thabt
which by its Motion or Revolution produces any other Fi-
gure, Plane, or Solid. See GENasIs.
GENERATION, in Phyficks, the A* of procreating, or
producing a thing, which before was not: Or, as the School-'
men define it, the total Changes or Converfion of a Body;
into a new one, which retains no fenfible Part or Mark of
its former State. See BobY.
Thus, Fire is faid to be generated, when We p-rceite it
to be, where before was only Wood, or other Fuel; or, whent
the Wood is fo changed~ as to retain no fenfible Charaaer
of Wood: Thus alfo, A Chick is faid to be g6nerated, when
we perceive the Chick, where before was only an Egg; or
the Egg is changed into the Form of the Chick.
In Generation, there is not properly any Produ&ion of
new Parts, but only a new Modification or manner of Ex-
ifience of the old ones; by which Generation is diftinguifh'4i
from Creation. See CREATIONi.
It is diflinguifh'd from A4lteratioo, in that the Subje~l, id
this latter, remains apparently the fame; and only theAc-
cidents,or Affeaions are changed: As when the famte Body
is to day well, and to morrow fick; or Brafs, which before
was round, is now fquare. See ALTERATION.
Lafily, Generation flands oppofed to Corrup/tiin; Which is
the utter Extinaion of a former Thing: As when that which
before was Wood,or an Egg, is no longer the one or the otver
Whence it appears, that the Generation of one Thing is thd
Corruption of another. See CORAUrTIoN.,
The Peripateticks explain Generation by a Change d
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GEN