OCR Text |
Show i4 of M A Ni dep.4., Patti; 'muft take notice, that by aName is not alwayes underflood, as in *‘ Grammar, one onely Word -, but fometimes by Circumlocution ma- ny words together. For all thefe words, Hee that m his affront oéferwthtbeLmerof his Country, make but one Name, equivalent ‘0 . this one word 14 . By this itntio'litifion ofNames, fome of larger, fome of firiéter fig‘ nification, we turn the reckoning of the confequences ofthings ima'ned inthe mind, intoareckonino of the confequences of Appel- chapaf. of M A N. Phi I} quence is trite ; otherwii'efalfe. For True andFa/fe are attributes of Speech, not of Things. And where Speech is not, there is neither Truth not Fallbaaa'. Erraur thcrcmay be, as when wee expect that which {hall not be ;or fuf eét what has not been: but in neither cafe . / . . can a man be charged ' Untruth. Seeing thenthat truth confifteth in the right ordering of names in [Veceflity of our affirmations, a man that feelteth recife truth, had need to remem- ations. For example, a man that hath no ufe of Speech at all, (fuch, or elfe he will find himfelfe entangled in words, as a bird in lime- twiggs ., the more he flruggles, the more behmed. And therefore in Geometry, ( which is the onely Screncethat it hath pleafed . God hi- the rto to befiow on mankind, ) men begin at fettlino the fignifications that the three ang es of that triangle, are equall to t ofe two right angles that {tand by it. But if another mangle be fhewn him different in {ha from the former, he cannot know Without a new labour, whether thecthree angles of that alfo be equall to the fame. But he that hath the ufe ofwords, when he obferves, that fuch equality was confequent, not to the length of the tides, nor to any other particu- lar thing in his triangle; but onely to this, that the tides were flraight, and the angles three; and that that was all, for which he named ita Triangle 5 will boldly conclude Univerlally, that fuch equality ofangles is in all triangles whatfoever ; and regifier his invention in the e generalltermes, Every triangle bath 1:; three angles cquallia mo right angles. And thus the confequence found in one particular, comes tobe regifired and remembred, as an Univerfall rule 3 and difcharges our mentall reckoning, of time and place 5 and delivers us from all labour of the mind, laving the firfl 5 and makes that which was found true here, and now, to be true in all tuner and of their words ; which fettling of fignifications, they call Definiti- am ; and place them in the beginning of their reckoning. By this it appears how necefraty it is for any man that afpires to title Knowledge, to examine the Definitions of former Authors 3 and either to correét them, where they are negligently fet down -, or to make them himfelfe. For the errouts of Definitions multiply themlélvcs,acc0tding as the reckoning proceeds; and lead men into ab- furdities, which at 1219: they fee, but cannot avo d, Without reckoning anew from the beginnin ;in which lyes the oundation of their er- rouis. From whence it appens, that they which trufi to books, do as they that cafi up many little fumms into a greater, without confider- ing whetherthofe little fummes were rightly caft up or not, and at lafi finding the ertour vifible, and not miftrufting their firil grounds, know nor which way to cleere themfelves , but {pend time in flutter- ing over their bookes ; as birds that cutting by the chimney, and findingthemielvesinclofed inachaniber, flutter at the falfe light of a plates. glaile window, for want of wit to confider which way they came in. But the ufe of words in regii'tring our thoughts, is in nothino {o eVident as in Numbting. A naturallfoole that could never learn by So that in the right Definition of Names, lyes the firfl ufe of Speech; which istlie Acquifition of Science : And in wrong, or no Definiti- heaitthe order of numerall words, as one, two, and three, may ob- ons, lyes the fitft abufe 5 from which proceed all falfe and fenflefl'e Tenets; which make thofe men that take their infirué‘tion from the fei've every ftroak of the Clock, and nod toit, or fay one, one, one ; but Can never know what houre it firikes. And it feeins, there was a time whenthoi‘e names of number were not in ule, and men were authority of books, and not from their own meditation, to be as much below the condition of ignorant men, as men endued With true 5C1- fayp to apply their fingers of one or borh hands, to thofe thinr‘s they denied to keep account of -, and that thence it proceeded, that ripow our ence are above it. For between tiue Science, and erroneous Lo- ftrines, Ignorance is in the middle. Naturall {enfe and imaOination, numerall words are but ten, in any Nation, and in fome but five and thenthey are not fubjcét to abfurdit . Nature it felfe cannot ei're: am as men abound in copioulheile oflanguage, f0 they become more wife, or begina am. And he that can tell ten, if he recite thm'I out of order, willlo e himfelfe, and not know when he has done : Much lefle will he be able to adde, and fubih‘aét, and perfornie all other 0 erations or Arithmetique. 80that without words,the re is no poffr ility of reckoning more mad than ordinary. Nor is it poifible without Letters for any man to become either excellently wile, or (unlefs his memory be hurt by difeafe, or ill conflitution of organs) excellentl fooliih. For of Numbers; much leiie of Mannitudes of Swntnefle,of FOI‘ICC32nd other things, the reckoning s theteof) are neceilaiyr to the being, or well-being of man-kind. words are wife mens counters, they do but reckon by them : but they are the mony of fooles, that value them by the authority of an Art- i ‘ \\ hen two Names are joyned together into a Confequence or Ail hrmation s :15 Ihus,A 7mm [5 a lit/1213 creature ~, or tliliS,zf/:e lit-IS .1 [mung creature, If the later name Living cream", belt mm iiom‘fic 311 t M! the former name Man iigniheth, then the affirmation , o);- confe- quence Definitions; ber what every name he ufes hands or -, and to place it accordingly ; as is born and remains perfeétly deafe and dumb,) if he fet before his eyes a triangle, and by it two right angles, ( fuch as are the cor- nets of a fquare fi ure,) he may by meditation compare and find, 15' flotlc, a Cicero, ora Thomas, or any other Doctor whatibever, ifbut a man. 5%)}er I0 Names, is whatfoevet can enter into, or be confidered in an account; and be added one to another to make a iumme 5 or fubiira(ted one from another, and leave a remainder. The Latines called Accounts Sflhjefi rt: Namer. |