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Show . 'Difcerning, &c. Book II. as, and in place of her Puppies, if you can btlt get them once to fuck her fo long, that her Milk may go through them. . . . 9. 8. When Children have, by repeated Senfauons, got Ideas ~xed 111 their Memories, they begm, by degrees, to learn the ufc of S1gns. And when they have got the skill to apply the O~ans of Speech to the framing of articulate Sounds,they begm to make uje of Words, to ligntfie thetr ideas to others; which words they fomeumes borrow from others, and fometimes make themfelves, ~one mal' obferve among the new and unufual Names Children often gtve to dungs tn thetr lirll ufc of lan-guage. d §. 9. The ufe of Words then being to llan as outward Morks ?four internal Ideas and thofe IdeaJ bemg taken from parttcufar thmgs, tf every particular Idea we take in, fi10uld have a difiinet Name, Names mull be endlefs. To prevent this, the Mind makes the parucular Ideas, recci• ved from particular Objects, to become general; wluch ts done by con~ fidering them as they are in the Mind fuchAppearances, feparate from all other Exillencies and the circumfiances of real Extllence, as Tune, Place, or any otherco~comitant/deat1 This is called ABSTRACTION, whereby Ideas taken from particular Beings, become general Rcprefentatives of all of the fame kind; and their Names general Names, applicable to whatever exifis conformable to fuch abllrast Ideas. Such precife, naked Appearances in the Mind, without confidering, how, whence, or with what others they came there, the Under!\anding lays up (with Names commonly annexed to them) as the Standards to rank real Exifiencies into forts, as they agr~,.with thefe Patterns, and to denominate them accordingly. Thus till: fame Colour being obferved ~o day in Chalk or Snow, which the ~md yellerday recetved from Mdk, tt confiders that Appearance alone, makes it a reprefentative of all of that kind; and having given it the name ll'hitenefs,it by that found lignifies the fame qualiwherefoever to be imagin'd or met with; and thus Univerfals, whether ideas or Terms, are made. ' ~.10. !fit may be doubted, Whether Bea.fls compound and enlarge their JdeOJ that way, to any degree: This, I think, I may be pofitive in, That the power of A!Jjlralling, is not at all in them ; and that the having of general Ideas, is that which puts a perfeCt dillintl:ion betwixt Man and Brutes; and is an Excellency which the Faculties of Brutes do by no means attain to. For it is evident, we obferveno foot-fiepsin them, of making ufe of general ligns for univerfalMeas; from which we have reafon to imagine, that they have not the fas:ulty of abllraeting, or making general ideas, Iince they have no ufe of Wor<ls, or any other general Signs. . ~- I I. Nor can it be imputed to their want of fit Organs, to frame arttculate Sounds, that they have no ufe, or knowledge of general Words · Iince ma~:y: of them, we find, can fafhion fuch Sounds, and pronounc~ Words d1fimcUy enough, but never Wtthany fuchapplication. And, on the other fide •. Men, who throuJilh f~me defeCl: in the Organs, want words_, yet fat! notto exprefs thetr umver(alldeas by figns, which ferve them mllC<~d of general words,a faculty whtch we fee Beafis come fhort in. and therefore I think ~e may fuppofe, That 't,is in this, that the Species of Brutes are dtfcnmmated from Man; and tis that pwper difference wherem they are wholly feparated, and which at !all widens to fo vail. a di!lance. For if they have any Ideas at all , and are not bare Machins (as fame would have them) we cannot deny them to have fome Reafon. lt feems as evident to me, rhat, they do reafon, as that they have fenfe; but Chap. xr . 'Difcerning, &c. but it is only in particular UeasJull as they receiv' d them from their Senfes. They are the bell of them tied up within thofe narrow bounds, and !Mile 11ot (as I think) the faculty to enlarge them by any k;nd of A!Jjlrailiow. §. a. How far Idiots are concerned in the want or weaknefs of any, or all of the foregoing Faculties, an exact obfervation of their feveral ways of faltering, would no doubt difcover. For thofe who either perceive but dully, or retain the ideas that come into tl1eir Minds, but ill, who cannot readily excite or compound them, will have little matter to think on. Thofe who cannot dillinguifh, compare, and abfiraet, would hardly be able to undedland, and make ufe of language, or judge, or reafon to any tolerable degree; but only a littfle, and imperfeCtly, about things prefent,and very familiar to their Senfes. Arrdfndecd,any of rhe for<>mentiono: l Farnlties, if wanting, or out of order, produce fuitable dcfeets in Mens Underllandings and Knowlec;1ge. §. 1 l· fn fine, The defeCt in N4turals, fecms to proceed ftom want of quickncts, aCtivity, and motion, in the intellectual Faculties, whereby they nrc deprived of Reafon : Whereas m•d Men, on ~he other fide, fcem to luffer by the otl1cr:Extream. For they do not appear to me to have loll the Faculty of RealONing: but having joined toget<her fume JJtas very wrongly , they mifiake them :for Truths ; and they ~r as Men do, that argue right .from wmng Principles. For.by the violence of their fmagi• JJations, having taken their Fanties:for Realities, they make right dc<luClion from them. Thus you fhall find a difiraeted M•n phanfying llil)l• ti:lf a King, with a right infertnce, reqnires fultable Attendance, Refpett1 and Obedience: Others who 'have 'thooght themfelves made of glafs, have ufed the cnution necelfary •tO prefetve ruch!Jrittlc Btxlies. Henoe it comes to pal'S, that a Man, who is very iOber, and of a rigbt Underfianding in all other things, may in one particular, be as frontick os .any in Bedlam ; if either by any fudden very firong impreffi~>n, or long fixing his Fancy upon one fort of Thoughts, iocoh~ent Ideas ha...e been temented tQgether fo powerfully, as to remain unii'Cd. But tl!ere 11re cje. grccs ofM;!dnefs, as of Folly; the diforderly jumbling Uw tog<!tiler, is in fomc more, and fome lefs. In fhort, herein lfeems ro lie tbe rullerence between !diem and mad Men, Thu mad Men pllt wrong Jde4s together, aod lO make wrong Propofitions, but argue. •nd reafon ri!';ht from them : But Idiots make very few or no Prop(iflfiO!ls, and reafoo fcarce at all. ' §. '4· l11efe, I think,are the firll Faculties and Operations oftllC Mind, which it makes u[e of in underfianding; which though they are exerctfed about all its Ideas in general; yet the inllances, I have hitherto .given, have been chiefly in fimple Ideas; and I have fubjotned the exphcatwn of thefe Faculties of the Mind, to that of fimple Jdras, before I come to what I have to fay, concerning complex ones, for thefe followtng Reafans: Fir./1 Bccaufc fevcral of thefe Faculties being exercifed at firll principally about fimple Ideas, we might, by following Nature in its ordinary method, trace and difcovcr them in their rife, progrefs, and gradual improvements. Secondly, Bccaufeobferving the Faculties of our Mind, how they operate about fimple Ideas, which arc ufi1ally in moll Mens Minds, much more clear, precife, and dillinCl:, than< complex ones, we may rhe better examine and learn how the Mind abllraCl:s, denominates, compares, and exercifes irs other Operations, about thofe which are complex, wherem we are much more liable to miflake. Tlmdly, |