| OCR Text |
Show 'Di(cerning, &c. Book II. Thirdly Becaufe thefe very Operations of the Mind about Ideas,receiv'd from Sewfotion, are themfelves, when reflected on, another fete of Ideas, derived from that other fource of our Knowledge, whtch I call Rejfdt;. on; and therefore lit to be conlidered in thi~ place, after the lim pie Ideas of Sewfatioli. Of Compoundmg, Companng, Abfiractmg, &c •. I have butju!l: fpoken, havmg occalion to treat of them more at large mother places. . 9. I)· And thus I have given a lhort, and, I tl11nk,. tnJe Hi./lory of tb~ firff 6eginnings of Humane Kn•wledge; whence the Mmd has us firfi Objects, and by what !l:eps it makes its progrefs to the laying in , and fioringupthofeideas, out of which IS to be framed all the Knowledge it is capable of; wherein I mufi appeal to Experience and ObferYation, whether I am in the right : The befi way to come to Truth, being to examine Things as really they are, and not to conclude they are as we fanfie of our [elves, or have been taught to imagine by others. §. 16. To deal truly, t!JiJ iJ the o•/y wqy that I can difcover, whereby the Ideas of things are 6ro•ght into the Vnder./landing : If other Merl have either innate Ideas, or infufed Principles, they have reafon to enjoy them; a_nd if they are fure of it, it ~ im~offible for others to deny them the prlVllege they have above therr Ne1ghbours. I can fpeak but of what I find in my felf, and is agreeable to thofe Notions; which if we .will examine the whole courfe of Men in their feveral Ages, Countrie• and Educations, feems to depend on thefe foundations I have laid and to correfpond with this Method in all the parts and degrees thereof. §. I 7. I pretend not to teach, but to enquire; and therefore cannot but confefs here again, That external and internal Senfation, are the only palfages I cal? find of knowledge _to the Underfi~ndin~; Thefe alone, as far as I can d1fcover, are the Wmdows by wh1ch !tght is let into thii dark Room. For, methinks, the Vnder.flanding is not much unlike a Clofet wholly lhut from light, with only fome little o~nings left, to let in external v1fible refemblances, or Jdeas of dungs Without· which would they but fiay there, and lie fo orderly as to be found up~n occafion it woJlld very much refemble the Underfianding of a Man, in referenc~ to all Objects of fights, and the Idw of them. Thefe are my Gue!fes concerning the means whereby the Underfianding comes to have, and retain fimple Ideas, and the modes of them with fome other operations about them. I proceed now to examine fom~ of thefe limple Ideas, and their Modes a little more partiCJllarly. . CHAP. Chap. XII. Complex Ideas. CHAP. XII. Of Complex ldt>as. §. •· \Y!E have !tithertoconlidered thofe Ideat, in the reception VV whereof, the Mmd 1S only paffive, which are thofe firnplc ones received fr6m Senfation and Rejleflion before-mentioned whereof the Mind cannot make any one to it fclf, nor have any Idea wi1ich does not wholy conlifi of them. But as thefc lim pie Ideas arc obferved ·to exifi in feveral Combinations united together; fo the Mind has a power to conlidcrfcvcral of them united together ,as one Mea; and that not only as they are united in external Objects,but as it felf has joined them. Ideas thus made up of feverallimple ones put together, I call Complex; fuch as are BeaMty, Gratitude, a /J'Ian, an Army, tbeVniverfe; which th<fugh com· pllf"ted of various lim pic ldeat, or complex Ideas,madc up oflimpleones, yet are , when the Mmd plcafes, conlidered each by 1t felf, as one entire thing, and lignified by one· nnme. • 9. :z.. In tlus faculty of repeating and joining together irs Ideas the Mind has great power in varying and multiplying the Objects ~f its Thoughts, infinitely beyond what Senfation or Rejfeflion furciU1ed it with: But all this fiill confined to thofe fimple Ideas, which it received from thofe two Sources , and which are the ultimate Materials of all its Compofitions. For thefe, they are all from things themfelves; and the Mind can have no more, nor other limple Ideas, ·than as they are !bggefied to it. It can have no other ldetiJ of fenlible ~alities, than .,.hat come from without by the Senfes ; nor any Ideas of other kind of Operations of a thinking Subllance, than what•it finds in it felf! but when it has once got thofe lim pie I/eas, it is not confined barely to Obfervation, and what offers it felf from without ; it can: by its own power, put together thofe Idet11 it has, and make new complex ones-, which it never received fo united. ' 9. l· Co_mplex Ideas, however compounded anddecompounded,t!tough their number be infinite, and the variety, endlefs, wherewith they fill , and and entertain the Thoughts of Men; yet, l think, they may be all reduced under thefe three Heads: x. Modes. ' :z.. Su/;ffanc,es. 3· Relati011s. §. 4· Firfi, Moder I call fuch complex Ideas, which howevet compounded, contain not in them the fuppolition offublifiing by themfelves, but are confidered as Dependences on, or Affections of Subfiances; fuch are the Ide"-' lignified by the words Triangle, Gratitude, Murther, &c. ond if in this I ufe the word Mode, in fomewhat a different fenfe from its ordinary lignification, I beg pardon; it being unavoidable in Difcourfes, differing from the ordinary received Notions, either to make new .Words, or to ufe old Words in fomewhat a new lignification; which in 011r prefent cafe, is perhaps the more tolerable of the two. L |
