f it
cannot be found in Aristotle, is an aid to the memory, and may be thrown
into a table thus:

Substance [Greek: ousia] (1)
{Quantity [Greek: poson] (2)
Attribute {Quality [Greek: poion] (3)
{Relation [Greek: pros ti] (4)

{ Where [Greek: pou] (5)
{ When [Greek: pote] (6)

{ Action [Greek: poiein] (7)
Modes of Relation { Passion [Greek: paschein] (8)

{ Posture [Greek: keisthai] (9)
{ Habit [Greek: echein] (10)

Taking a particular thing or individual, as 'Socrates,' this is
Substance in the proper sense of the word, and can never be a predicate,
but is the subject of all predicates. We may assert of him (1) Substance
in the secondary sense (species or genus) that he is a man or an animal;
(2) Quantity, of such a height or weight; (3) Quality, fair or dark; (4)
Relation, shorter or taller than Xanthippe; (5) Where, at Athens; (6)
When, two thousand and odd years ago; (7) Action, that he questions or
pleads; (8) Passion, that he is answered or condemned; (9) Posture, that
he sits or stands; (10) Habit, that he is clothed or armed.

Thus illustrated (_Categoriae_: c. 4), the predicaments seem to be a list
of topics, generally useful for the analysis and description of an
individual, but wanting in the scientific qualities of rational
arrangement, derivation and limitation. Why are there just these heads,
and just so many? It has been suggested that they were determined by
grammatical forms: for Substance is expressed by a substantive;
Quantity, Quality and Relation are adjectival; Where and When,
adverbial; and the remaining four are verbal. It is true that the parts
of speech were not systematically discriminated until some years after
Aristotle's time; but, as they existed, they may have unconsciously
influenced his selection and arrangement of the predicaments. Where a
principle is so obscure one feels glad of any clue to it (_cf._ Grote's
_Aristotle_, c. 3, and Zeller's _Aristotle_, c. 6). But whatever the
origin and original meaning of the predicaments, they were for a long
time regarded as a classification of things; and it is in this sense
that Mill criticises them (_Logic_: Bk. I. c. 3).

If, however, the predicaments a