can never totally represent to it which carries in it a plain Contradiction This will be plainer if we consider Infinity in Numbers The Infinity of Numbers to the end of whose addition every one perceives there is no approach easily appears to any one that reflects on it But how clear soever this Idea of the Infinity of Number be there is nothing yet more evident than the Absurdity of the actual Idea of Infinite Number CHAP. XVIII Of other Simple Modes THE Mind has several distinct Ideas of Sliding Rolling Walking Creeping c. which are all but the different modifications of Motion Swift and Slow are two different Ideas of Motion the measures whereof are made out of the distances of Time and Space put together The like variety we have in Sounds Every articulate word is a different modification of Sound as are also Notes of different length put together which make that Complex Idea called Tune The Modes of Colours might be also very various some of which we take notice of as the different degrees or as they are termed Shades of the same Colour But since we seldom make assemblages of Colours without taking in Figure also as in Painting c. Those which are taken notice of do most commonly belong to mixed Modes as Beauty Rainbow c. All compounded Tastes and Smells are also Modes made up of the Simple Ideas of those Senses But they being such as generally we have no Names for cannot be set down in writing but must be left to the Thoughts and Experience of the Reader CHAP. XIX Of the Modes of Thinking WHen the Mind turns its view inwards upon its self Thinking is the first Idea that occurs wherein it observes a great variety of Modifications and thereof frames to it self distinct Ideas Thus the Perception annex'd to any impression on the Body made by an external Object is call'd Sensation When an Idea recurs without the presence of the Object it is called Remembrance When sought after by the Mind and brought again in view it is Recollection When held there long under attentive consideration it is Contemplation When Ideas float in the Mind without Regard or Reflection 't is called in French Resvery our Language has scarce a name for it When the Ideas are taken notice of and as it were Registred in the Memory it is Attention When the Mind fixes its view on any one Idea and considers it on all sides it is Intention and Study Sleep without Dreaming is Rest from all these And Dreaming is the Perception of Ideas in the Mind not suggested by any external Objects or known occasions nor under any choice or conduct of the Understanding Of these various modes of Thinking the Mind forms as distinct Ideas as it does of White and Red a Square or a Circle CHAP. XX. Of the Modes of Pleasure and Pain PLeasure and Pain are Simple Ideas which we receive both from Sensation and Reflection There are Thoughts of the Mind as well as Sensations accompanied with Pleasure or Pain Their Causes are termed Good or Evil. For things are esteemed Good or Evil only in reference to Pleasure or Pain That we call Good which is apt to cause or increase Pleasure or diminish Pain in us to procure or preserve the possession of any Good or absence of any Evil And on the contrary that we call Evil which is apt to produce or increase any Pain or diminish any Pleasure in us or else to procure us any Evil or deprive us of any Good By Pleasure and Pain I would be understood to mean of Body or Mind as they are commonly distinguished thô in Truth they are only different constitutions of the Mind sometimes occasion'd by disorder in the Body sometimes by thoughts of the Mind Pleasure and Pain and their causes Good and Evil are the Hinges upon which our Passions turn by reflecting on the various Modifications or Tempers of Mind and the internal Sensations which Pleasure and Pain Good and Evil produce in us we may thence form to our selves the Ideas of our Passions Thus by reflecting upon the Thought we have of the Delight which any thing is apt to produce in us we have an Idea we call Love and on the contrary the thought of the Pain which any thing present or absent produces in us is what we call Hatred Desire is that uneasiness which a Man finds in himself upon the absence of any thing the present enjoyment of which carries the Idea of Delight with it Joy is a Delight of the Mind arising from the present or assur'd approaching possession of a Good Sorrow is an uneasiness of the Mind upon the thought of a Good lost or the Sense of a present Evil. Hope is a pleasure in the Mind upon the thought of a probable future Enjoyment of a thing which is apt to delight Fear is an uneasiness of the Mind upon the thought of a future Evil likely to befall us Anger is a discomposure of Mind upon the receipt of Injury with a present purpose of Revenge Despair is the thought of the unattainableness of any Good Envy is an uneasiness of Mind caused by the consideration of a Good we desire obtained by one we think should not have had it before us It is to be considered that in reference to the Passions the Removal or Lessening of a Pain is considered and operates as a Pleasure and the loss or diminishing of a Pleasure as a Pain And farther that the Passions in most Persons operate on the Body and cause various Changes in it But these being not always sensible do not make a necessary part of the Idea of each Passion Besides these modes of Pleasure and Pain which result from the various considerations of Good and Evil there are many others I might have instanced in as the pain of Hunger and Thirst and the pleasure of Eating and Drinking and of Musick c. but I rather chose to instance in the Passions as being of much more concernment to us CHAP. XXI Of Power THE Mind being every day informed by the Senses of the alteration of those Simple Ideas it observes in things without reflecting also on what passes within it self and observing a constant Change of its Ideas sometimes by the impressions of outward Objects upon the Senses and sometimes by the Determination of its own Choice and concluding from what it has so constantly observed to have been that the like changes will for the future be made in the same things by the same Agents and by the like ways considers in one thing the possibility of having any of its Simple Ideas changed and in another the possibility of making that Change and so comes by that Idea which we call Power Thus we say Fire has a power to melt Gold and make it fluid and Gold has a power to be melted Power thus considered is Twofold viz. as able to make or able to receive any change the one may be called Active the
better definition of Motion when well examined The Act of Perspicuous as far forth as perspicuous is another Peripatetick definition of a Simple Idea which it is certain can never make the meaning of the word Light which it pretends to define understood by a blind Man And when the Cartesians tell us that Light is a great number of little Globules striking briskly in the bottom of the Eye these words would never make the Idea the word Light stands for known to a Man that understood it not before Simple Ideas then can only be got by the impressions Objects make on our Minds by the proper In-letts appointed to each sort If they are not received this way all the words in the World will never be able to produce in us the Ideas they stand for Words being Sounds can produce in us no other Simple Ideas but Sounds nor excite any in us but by that voluntary connexion which they have with some Ideas which common Use has made them signs of and therefore he that has not before received into his Mind by the proper In-lett the Simple Idea which any word stands for can never come to know the signification of that word by any other Words or Sounds whatsoever But in Complex Ideas which consist of several Simple ones the cause is quite otherwise for Words standing for those several Ideas that make up the composition may imprint Complex Ideas in the Mind that never were there before and so make their Names be understood In them Definitions take place Thus the word Rainbow to one who knew all those Colours but yet had never seen that Phaenomenon might by enumerating the Figure Largeness Position and order of the Colours be so well defined that it might be perfectly understood The Names of Simple Ideas Substances and mixed Modes have also this disserence that those of mixed Modes stand for Ideas perfectly ararbitrary those of Substances are not perfectly so but refer to a pattern thô with some Latitude and those of Simple Ideas are perfectly taken from the Existence of Things and are not arbitrary at all The Names of Simple Modes differ little from those of Simple Ideas CHAP. V. Of the Names of Mixed Modes and Relations THE Names of Mixed Modes being general stand for Abstract Ideas in the Mind as other general Names do but they have something peculiar which may deserve our Attention And First the Ideas they stand for or if you please the Essences of the several Species of mixed Modes are made by the Understanding wherein they differ from those of Simple Ideas Secondly They are made Arbitrarily without patterns or reference to any real Existence wherein they differ from those of Substances The Mind unites and retains certain Collections as so many distinct Specifick Ideas whilst other combinations that as often in Nature occur and are as plainly suggested by outward Things pass neglected without particular Names or Specifications The Mind in forming these Complex Ideas makes no new Idea but only puts together those which it had before wherein it does Three Things First It chuses a certain Number Secondly It gives them Connexion and makes them into one Idea Thirdly It ties them together by a Name all this may be done before any one Individual of that Species of Modes ever existed as the Ideas of Sacrilege or Adultery might be framed before either of them was ever committed and we cannot doubt but Law-makers have often made Laws about species of Actions which were only the Creatures of their own Understanding But thô Mixed Modes depend on the Mind and are made arbitrarily yet they are not made at random and jumbled together without any reason at all but are always made for the convenience of Communication which is the chief end of Language and therefore such Combinations are only made as Men have frequent occasion to mention Thus Men having joyned to the Idea of killing the Idea of Father and Mother and so made a distinct Species from the killing a Man's Son or Neighbour because of the different Heinousness of the Crime and the distinct punishment due to it found it necessary to mention it by a distinct Name which is the end of making that distinct Combination In mixed Modes it is the Name that seems to preserve their Essences and to give them their lasting Duration The collection of Ideas is made by the Mind but the name is as it were the Knot which ties them fast together hence we seldom take any other for distinct Species of mixed Modes but such as are set out by Names We must observe that the names of mixed Modes always signify the real Essences of their Species which being nothing but the Abstract Complex Ideas and not referred to the real existence of Things there is no supposition of any thing more signified by any Name of a mixed Mode but barely that Complex Idea the Mind it self has formed which when the Mind has formed is all it would express by it and is that on which all the Properties of the Species depend and from which alone they flow and so in these the real and nominal Essence is the same This also shews the reason why the Names of mixed Modes are commonly got before the Ideas they stand for are perfectly known because there being no Species of these ordinarily taken notice of but such as have Names and those Species being Complex Ideas made arbitrarily by the Mind it is convenient if not necessary to know the Names before we learn the Complex Ideas unless a Man will fill his Head with a company of Abstract Complex Ideas which others having no Names for he has nothing to do with but to lay by and forget again In the beginning of Languages it was necessary to have the Idea before one gave it the Name and so it is still where a new Complex Idea is to be made and a Name given it In Simple Ideas and Substances I grant it is otherwise which being such Ideas as have real Existence and Union in Nature the Ideas or Names are got one before the other as it happens What has been said here of mixed Modes is with very little difference applicable to Relations also which since every Man himself may observe I may spare my self the pains to enlarge on CHAP. VI. Of the Names of Substances THE common Names of Substances stand for Sorts as well as other general Terms that is for such Complex Ideas wherein several particular Substances do or might agree by virtue of which they are capable to be comprehended in one common Conception and be signified by one Name I say do or might agree for thô there be but one Sun existing yet the Idea of it being Abstracted is as much a Sort as if there were as many Suns as there are Stars The measure and boundary of each Sort whereby it is constituted that particular Sort and distinguished from others is what we call its Essence which is nothing
do it because the three Angles of a Triangle cannot be brought at once and be compared with any other one or two Angles And so of this the Mind has no immediate or Intuitive Knowledge In this case the Mind is fain to find out some other Angles to which the three Angles of a Triangle have equality and finding those equal to two Right ones comes to know the equality of these three Angles to two Right ones Those intervening Ideas which serve to shew the Agreement of any two others are called Proofs And where the Agreement or Disagreement is by this means plainly and clearly perceived it is called Demonstration A quickness in the Mind to find those Proofs and to apply them right is I suppose that which is called Sagacity This Knowledge thô it be certain is not so clear and evident as Intuitive Knowledge It requires pains and attention and steady application of Mind to discover the Agreement or Disagreement of the Ideas it considers and there must be a Progression by Steps and Degrees before the Mind can in this way arrive at Certainty Before Demonstration there was a Doubt which in Intuitive Knowledge cannot happen to the Mind that has its Faculty of Perception left to a Degree capable of distinct Ideas no more than it can be a Doubt to the Eye that can distinctly see White and Black whether this Ink and Paper be all of a Colour Now in every step that Reason makes in Demonstrative Knowledge there is an Intuitive Knowledge of that Agreement or Disagreement it seeks with the next intermediate Idea which it uses as a proof for if it were not so that yet would need a proof since without the Perception of such Agreement or Disagreement there is no Knowledge produced By which it is evident that every step in reasoning that produces Knowledge has Intuitive Certainty which when the Mind perceives there is no more required but to remember it to make the Agreement or Disagreement of the Ideas concerning which we enquire Visible and Certain This Intuitive Perception of the Agreement or Disagreement of the Intermediate Ideas in each step and progression of the Demonstration must also be exactly carried in the Mind and a Man must be sure that no part is left out which because in long Deductions the Memory cannot easily retain this Knowledge becomes more imperfect than Intuitive and Men often embrace Falshoods for Demonstrations It has been generally taken for granted that Mathematicks alone are capable of Demonstrative Certainty But to have such an Agreement or Disagreement as may be Intuitively perceived being as I imagine not the priviledge of the Ideas of Number Extension and Figure alone it may possibly be the want of due Method and Application in us and not of sufficient Evidence in Things that Demonstration has been thought to have so little to do in other parts of Knowledge For in whatever Ideas the Mind can perceive the Agreement or Disagreement immediately there it is capable of Intuitive Knowledge and where it can perceive the Agreement or Disagreement of any two Ideas by an Intuitive Perception of the Agreement or Disagreement they have with any intermediate Ideas there the Mind is capable of Demonstration which is not limited to the Ideas of Figure Number Extension or their Modes The reason why it has been generally supposed to belong to them only is because in comparing their Equality or Excess the Modes of Numbers have every the least difference very clear and perceivable And in Extension thô every the least excess is not so perceptible yet the Mind has found out ways to discover the just Equality of two Angels Extensions or Figures and both that is Numbers and Figures can be set down by visible and lasting Marks But in other Simple Ideas whose Modes and Differences are made and counted by Degrees and not Quantity we have not so nice and accurate a distinction of their Differences as to perceive or find ways to measure their just Equality or the least Differences For those other Simple Ideas being Appearances or Sensations produced in us by the Size Figure Motion c. of minute Corpuseles singly insensible their different Degrees also depend on the variation of some or all of those Causes which since it cannot be observed by us in Particles of Matter whereof each is too subtile to be perceived it is impossible for us to have any exact measures of the different Degrees of these Simple Ideas Thus for Instance not knowing what number of Particles nor what motion of them is fit to produce any precise degree of Whiteness we cannot demonstrate the certain Equality of any two degrees of Whiteness because we have no certain Standard to measure them by nor means to distinguish every the least difference the only help we have being from our Senses which in this point fail us But where the difference is so great as to produce in the Mind Ideas clearly distinct there Ideas of Colours as we see in different kinds Blue and Red for instance are as capable of Demonstration as Ideas of Number and Extension What is here said of Colours I think holds true in all Secondary Qualities These two then Intuition and Demonstration are the degrees of our Knowledge whatever comes short of one of these is but Faith or Opinion not Knowledge at least in all General Truths There is indeed another Perception of the Mind employed about the particular Existence of finite Beings without us which going beyond probability but not reaching to either of the foregoing degrees of Certainty passes under the name of Knowledge Nothing can be more certain than that the Idea we receive from an External Object is in our Minds this is Intuitive Knowledge but whether we can thence certainly infer the existence of any Thing without us corresponding to that Idea is that whereof some Men think there may be a question made because Men may have such an Idea in their Minds when no such Thing Exists no such Object affects their Senses But 't is evident that we are invincibly Conscious to our selves of a different Perception when we look upon the Sun in the Day and think on it by Night when we actually taste Wormwood or smell a Rose or only think on that Savour or Odour so that I think we may add to the two former sorts of Knowledge this also of the Existence of particular external Objects by that Perception and Consciousness we have of the actual entrance of Ideas from them and allow these three degrees of Knowledge viz. Intuitive Demonstrative and Sensitive But since our Knowledge is founded on and employed about our Ideas only Will it follow thence that it must be conâ—ormable to our Ideas and that where our Ideas are clear and distinct obscure and confused there our Knowledge will be so too I answer No For our Knowledge consisting in the Perception of the Agreement or Disagreement of any two Ideas its clearness or obscurity
far it may extend This part depending on our Sagacity in finding intermediate Ideas that may shew the Habitudes and Relations of Ideas It is an hard matter to tell when we are at an end of such Discoveries They that are ignorant of Algebra cannot imagine the Wonders in this kind are to be done by it and what farther Improvements and Helps advantageous to other parts of Knowledge the Sagacious Mind of Man may yet find out it is not easy to determine This at least I believe that the Ideas of Quantity are not those alone that are capable of Demonstration and Knowledge and that other and perhaps more useful parts of Contemplation would afford us Certainty if Vices Passions and domineering Interests did not oppose or menace Endeavours of this kind The Idea of a Supream Being Infinite in Power Goodness and Wisdom whose Workmanship we are and on whom we depend and the Idea of our Selves as understanding rational Creatures would I suppose if duly considered afford such Foundations of our Duty and Rules of Action as might place Morality among the Sciences capable of Demonstration wherein I doubt not but from Principles as Incontestable as those of the Mathematicks by necessary Consequences the measure of Right and Wrong might be made out to any one that will apply himself with the same Indifferency and Attention to the One as he does to the Other of these Sciences The Relations of other Modes may certainly be perceived as well as those of Number and Extension Where there is no Property there is no Injustice is a Proposition as certain as any Demonstration in Euclid for the Idea of Property being a right to any thing and the Idea of Injustice being the invasion or violation of that Right it is evident that these Ideas being thus established and these Names annexed to them I can as certainly know this Proposition to be true as that a Triangle has three Angles equal to Two right ones Again No Government allows absolute Liberty The Idea of Government being the establishment of Society upon certain Rules or Laws which require Conformity to them and the Idea of Absolute Liberty being for any one to do whatever he pleases I am as capable of being certain of the Truth of this Proposition as of any in Mathematicks What has given the advantage to the Ideas of Quantity and made them thought more capable of Certainty and Demonstration is First That they can be represented by sensible Marks which have a nearer Correspondence with them than any Words or Sounds Diagrams drawn on Paper are Copies of the Ideas and not liable to the uncertainty that Words carry in their Signification But we have no sensible Marks that resemble our Moral Ideas and nothing but Words to express them by which thô when written they remain the same yet the Ideas they stand for may change in the same Man and it is very seldom that they are not different in different Persons Secondly Moral Ideas are commonly more Complex than Figures whence these two Inconveniencies follow First That their Names are of more uncertain Signification the precise collection of Simple Ideas they stand for not being so easily agreed on and so the sign that is used for them in Communication always and in Thinking often does not steadily carry with it the same Idea Secondly The Mind cannot easily retain those precise Combinations so exactly and perfectly as is necessary in the examination of the Habitudes and Correspondencies Agreements or Disagreements of several of them one with another especially where it is to be judged of by long Deductions and the intervention of several other Complex Ideas to shew the Agreement ' or Disagreement of two remote ones One part of these Disadvantages in Moral Ideas which has made them be thought not capable of Demonstration may in a good measure be remedied by Definitions setting down that collection of Simple Ideas which every Term shall stand for and then using the Terms steadily and constantly for that precise Collection As to the Fourth sort of Knowledge viz. of the real actual existence of Things we have an Intuitive Knowledge of our own Existence a Demonstrative Knowledge of the Existence of God and a Sensitive Knowledge of the Objects that present themselves to our Senses From what has been said we may discover the Causes of our Ignorance which are chiefly these Three First want of Ideas Secondly Want of a discoverable Connexion between the Ideas we have Thirdly Want of tracing and examining our Ideas First There are some things we are ignorant of for want of Ideas All the Simple Ideas we have are confined to the observation of our Senses and the operations of our own Minds that we are conscious of in our Selves What other Ideas it is possible other Creatures may have by the assistance of other Senses and Faculties more or perfecter than we have or different from ours it is not for us to determine but to say or think there are no such because we conceive nothing of them is no better an Argument than if a blind Man should be positive in it that there was no such thing as Sight and Colours because he had no manner of Idea of any such thing What Faculties therefore other species of Creatures have to penetrate into the Nature and inmost constitutions of Things we know not This we know and certainly find that we want other views of them besides those we have to make discoveries of them more perfect The Intellectual and Sensible World are in this perfectly alike that the parts which we see of either of them hold no proportion with that we see not and whatsoever we can reach with our Eyes or our Thoughts of either of them is but a point almost nothing in comparison of the rest Another great cause of Ignorance is the want of Ideas that we are capable of This keeps us in ignorance of Things we conceive capable of being known Bulk Figure and Motion we have Ideas of yet not knowing what is the particular Bulk Motion and Figure of the greatest part of the Bodies of the Universe we are ignorant of the several Powers Efficacies and ways of Operation whereby the effects we daily see are produced These are hid from us in some things by being too Remote in others by being too Minute When we consider the vast distance of the known and visible parts of the World and the reasons we have to think that what lies within our Ken is but a small part of the immense Universe we shall then discover an huge abyss of Ignorance What are the particular Fabricks of the great Masses of Matter which make up the whole stupendous frame of corporeal Beings how far they are extended and what is their motion and how continued and what influence they have upon one another are contemplations that at first glimpse our Thoughts lose themselves in If we confine our Thoughts to this little Canton I mean this System of