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Show 174 Adequate and Inadequate !deaf. Book IL Gold; and from whence thofe ~alitiest1ow,which !find in it, vi~. its peculiar, Colour, Weight, Hardnefs, F ufibdlty,FIX(dnefs, and chang'i of Colour up~n a ffight touch of Mercur_y, f!fc • . Th1s E!fence, fron: whtchall thefe Properties flow, when I enq·me mto It, and fc~rch after 11, I plamly pe~ceive J cannot difcover: the farthefi I can go, IS only to prefume, that 1t being notbin~ bu~Ilody, its real E!fence, .or internal Confiitution, on which thefe ~ahnes depend, can be notlung but the F!f?Ure, Stze, and Connexion of its folid Parts; of netther of wlueh, I havmg any dtfimct perception at all, I can have no idea of its real Eifcnce, whid1 is the qufe that it has that parncubr Omung yellownef~; a greater wetght than any thing I know of rhe fame bulk ; and a fitnefs to have its Colour changed by the touch of ~icl<f)lver. If any one will fay! that the real E!fence, and internal Confiltutton, on wh1ch thefe Properties depend, IS not the Figure,Size,and Ar:m~ementor Connexion of its folid Parts,but fomethin~ elfe call"d its particular form; I am farther from havmg any Idea of ItS rea\E!fence, than J was before. Fori have an Idea of Figure, Size, and Situation of folid Parts in general, though I have none of the particular Fi, gure, Size, or putting together of Parts, whereby the ~ali ties above-mentioned are j)rOduced; which ~alities I find in that particular parcel of M~tter that is on my Finger, and not in another parcel of Matter with which I cut the Pen I write with. But when I am told, that fomethiog befides the Figure, Size, and Pofiure of the folid Parts of that Body, . is its E{fenGe, fomething called fubfrant.ial form , of that, I confefs, I have no Itka at all, but only of the found Form: which is far enough from an Idtn ofi\S re~l E(fence, or Confiitution. The like ignorance as I have of ttle real E!fence pfthis particular Subfrance, I have alfo of the real F!fcnce ~f al\ otlier f\aiural ones": Of which Elfences, I confefs, I have no difiinct JJeaJ at all ; and I am apt, to fuppqfe, others, when they examine (heir own Knowledge, will find ln themfelv~, in thi> one point, the fame fort of ignorance. , §. 7· Now then, when Men apply to this particular parcel of Matter on my Finger, a gener Ji Name alre<dy in ufe•, and denominate it Go!tl, Do they not ordinarily, or are they not underfiood to give it that Name, l\S belonging to-a particular Species of Bodies, having a real internal Effence; by having of which EITence, this particular Subfiance comes. to be of that Spectes, ;1nd to be called by th•t Name.' If it be fo, as It ts plain it is, toe n,ame by which Th.ings are marked, a, having that Ef- ' fence, mqfi be referred primarily to that EITence; and confequently the Idea to which that name is given, mull: be referred alfo to that E!fence, and be intended to reprefent it : which E!fence, Iince they who fo ufe the Names, know not their Ideas of Su~jlances mull be all inadeqt•ate in that refped, as not containing in them that real E!fence, which the Mind in· tends they lhould. ~. 8. Secoxdly, Thofe who, neglecting that ufelefs Suppofition of ull' known ro:al E!fences, whereby they are difrm!!lli!hed endeavour to copy the Subfiances, that exifi in the World, by pu~ting t~gether the ideas of thofe fenfible ~ahttcs, wlucf1 are found co-exifiing in them, though rhcy come much 9earer a hkenefs of them than thofe whoimarrine they know not what real fpccifick E!fences: yet' they arrive not at pe~feetly adequate Ue.a of thofc Subftances,they would thus copy into their Minds: nor do thofe Coptes, exactly and fully, contain all that is to be found in thelt Ar· chetypes. Bec•ufe thofe ~alities, and Powers of Subfiance5 whereof we make their complex Ideas, ar~ fo many and 'various that' no Man's Com~lex !tlea contains them all. That our abftraet Jde~s of Subfianccs, do Chap. XXX. Adequate and Inadequate Ideas. do not contain in them all the fimple Idtas that are united in the Things rhemfelves, IS evident, m that Men do rarely put into their complex Idea of any Su~francc, all the fimple_ Idea.s they do. knowtocxifi in it. Becnufe endeavourmg to make the figmficatton of their fpectfick Name5 , as clear and as httle cumbcrfome as they can, they make their fpecifick Ideas of the forts of Sub frances! for the mofr part, of a few ;of thofe fimple Ideas wh1ch are to be found m them: But thefe having no original precedency or right to be put in, and make the fpecifick Idea, more than others tha; are left out, 'tis plain that both thefe ways, o•r Ideas of Su~fla•ces are deficient, and inadequate. The lim pie !tltas whereof we make our complex ones of Subflances, are all of them (bating only the Figure and Bulk offomeforts) Powers; which being Relations to other Subfiances, we can ne~er be fure we know all the Power~ that are in any one Body, till we have tned what Changes 1t IS fitted to g1ve to, or receive from other Subfiances, in their feveral wa)'S of application: which being impo!Tible to be tncd upon any one Body, much lefs upon all, it is impoffible we ll10uld have adequate Ideas of any Subll:ance, made up of a Colle<lion of all its Properties. §. 9· Who!Oever firfi light on a parcel of that fort of Subfrance, we denote by t.he word Gold, could not rattonally take the Bulk and Figure he obferve(m that lump, to depend on Its real E!feoce; on its internal Confiitution. Therefore thofe never went into his Idea of that Species of Body: but its pecuhar Colour, perhaps, and Weight, were the firft he abllracted from it, to make the complex Idea of that Species. Which both, are but Powers ; the one to affeCt our Eyes, after fuch a manner, and to produce in us that Idea we call Yellow ; and the other to force upwards anyother Body of equal bulk,theybeingputintoa pairofequal Scales,one tg~~infi another. Another, perhaps, added to thefe, the Ideas ofFufibi• lity and Fixednefs, two other paffive Pow.ers, in relal;ion to the operation of Fire upon it: Another, its Ductility and Solubility in A9. Regia, two other Powers, relating t.o the operation of other Bodies, in changing its outward Figure, or S.eparation of it, into fenfible Parts. Thefe, or part of thefe,put together, ufually make the complex Idea in Mens Minds, of that fort of Body we call Gold. §, 10. But no one, who hath confidered the Properties of Bodies in g<>neta!, or this fort in particular,candoubt trot this, call'd Gold, has infinite other Properties, not contained in that complex/dea: Some, who have examined this Species more accurately, could, I believe, enumerate ten tunes as many Properties in Gold ; all of them as infeparable from its internal Confiitution, as its Colour, or Weight:. And 'tis probable, if any ooc knew all the Properties, that are by divers Men known ofthisMetall there would an hundred times as many JdeaJ, go to the complex Idea of Gold, as any one Man yet has in his; and yet that not, perhaps, be the thoufandth part of what is to be diiCovered in it. The changes that thac one Body is "I" to receive, and make in other Bodies, UP,On a due appliQt< on, exceeding far, not only what we know, but what we are apt to Imagme. Which will not appear fo much a Paradox _to any oue, who Wtll but confide r, how far Men are yet from knowing all the Properties of that one, no very compound Figure, a Triangle, though it be no fmall numbers that are already by Mathematicians dt!covered of it. ~.II. So that all our complex ideas of Subj/ances are imperfeCt and iH· •Y•ruate: which would be fo alfo in mathemotical Figures, tf we were to IJlve our complex Ideas of them, only by colleCting thCit Properties, m leferencc to other Figures. How uncertain, and tmperfeCt, would our Ideas |