| OCR Text |
Show '!he Original of our Ideas. Book II. -±i-------~~~--------------' tis the affedation of knowing beyond what we perceive, that makes fo much ufelefs difpute, and noife, in the World. §. oo. 1 fee no Reafon therefore to believe,, that the Soul tbinks h[or< the Senfes /;ave furnijhed it with ideas to dunk o~; and as thofe are 10· creafed, and retained; fo it comes,by Exerc1fe, to Improve 1ts Faculty. of thinking in the feveral parts of ~r, as well as afr.er"!ards,. by com~oundmg thofe Ideas, and refletl:ing on ItS own Operan?ns, at mc~eafes Its Stock ns well as Facility, in remembnng, 1magmmg, reafomng, and other modes of thinking. . . . §. 21. He chat will fufl<rlumfelf, robe 10formed by Obfervat1on and Experience, and nor make his own Hypothelis the Rule of Nature, wiU find few Signs of a Soul accu!l:omed to much th10kmg 10 .a ~ew born Child and much fewer of any Reafon10g at all. And yet It IS hard to imagi~e, that the rational Soul fl10uld think fo much, and not rea{on at all. And he that will confider, that Infants,newly come mto the World, fpend the greate!l: part of their time in Sleep, and a~e feldom awa~e, but when either Hunger calls for the Teat, ~r fame Pam, (the mo£1: 1mpor· tunate of all Senfations) or fame other v10lent idea, forces the mmd to perceive, and attend to it, He, I fay, who confiders this, will, perhaps, find Reafon to imagine, That a F111tus in tbe Motha's Womb, differs not much from tbe State of a Vegetable ; but pa{fes th: greatefi parr of its time without Perception or Thought, domg vrry httle, but lleep m a Place, where it needs not feek for Food, and is furrounded with Li· quor,always equally foft, and near of the fame Temper; where t\Je Eyes have no Light, and the Ears, fo fhut up, are not very fufcept1blc of Sounds; and where there is little or no variety, or change ofObjetl:sto move the Seofes. §. 22, Follow a Child from its Birth, nnd obferve the alterations that time makes; and you fi1all find, as the m>nd by the Senfes comes more and more to be furnifhed with Ideas, it comes to be more and more a· wake ; thinks more~ the more it has matter to think on. After fomc time, it begins to know the Objeds, which being mofi familiar with it, have made la!l:ing Impreffions. Thus it comes, by degrees, to know the Perfons it daily convedes with, and difiinguifi1 them from Strangm ; which are In!l:ances and Effects of its coming to retain and di!l:inguith the Ideas the Senfes convey to it: And fo we may obferve, how the Mind,by deg,rus,improves in thefe, and ad'llances to the Exercife of thofc other Faculties of Enlarging,, Compounding, and Abj/raaing its Ideas, and ofreafoning about them, and reflecting upon all thefe, of which, I Jhall have occalion to fpeak more hereafter. §.21. !fit fhall be demanded then, When a Man begins to h•w any!dw! I think, the true Anfwer is, When he firfl: has any Senfation. For Iince there appear not to be any Ideas in the Mind, before the Senfes have con· veyed any in, I conceive that Ideas in the Underfianding, are coeval with Se•fation ; which is fuch an Impreffion or Motion, made in fomc part of the Body, as make~ it be taken notice of in the Under· fianding. ~. 24 The Imprej!ions then, that are made on GUr S.nfes by outward Objeds, that are extrinfical to the Mind, and its own Operations, abouc thefe lmpreffions refldled on by its fell; as proper Objects to be contem· 'plated by it, are, I conceive, the Orif!.inal of all Kn01pledge; and the firft Capac1ty of Humane Inrelled, is, That the Mind is fitted to receive the ImpreHions made on it; either, througll the Senfes, by outward ObjeCts; or by l(l; own Operations, when it rejleHs on them. This is the firfi ftep Chap. II. Simple !dear. fiep a Man makes to1~ards the Difcov~ry of any thing, and the Groundwork, whereon to bUild all thofe Not10ns, which ever he fhall have naturally 10 tll!S World. All. thofe fublime Thoughts, which towre above ~h: Clo~ds, and reach ns h1gh as Heayen Its f:Jf, take theirRifeandFoot' n" here.ln all .that great Extentwhere10 th~mtnd wanders,in thofe remote Speculations, It ~ay feem to be elevated With, itfiirs not one jot be and tho~e Ideas, wh1ch Senfe or RejleHi.,, have offered for · Co y ~~ m nt- §: 2 5: In this Part, the .vnderj/anding is meerly pajJi'IJ~; and whether or ~o, 1t :mll have thcfe 13egmnmr,s, and aslt were materials of Knowlcd •s not 10 Its own Power. Fort 1e Objet'fs o!' our Senfes,do,many of theifne, obtrude thclf !'articular !dea.s upon. our mmds, whether we will or no: And the OperatlollS of our mmds, will not let us be without, at Jeafi fo~ obfcure Nonons of them. No Man, can be wholly ignorant f ha 1 does, when he. thinks. Thefe jimple Ideas, when olfertd t~ th~ m~n:t :'" Vnder/landmg can no more refufe to have, nor alter, when the ar~ 1mpnnted, nor blot them out, and make new ones in it felf ha y · ror can re.ru. ,' e, a l ter, or ob.l I' terate t IJ e Images or Ideas, wh,i cth tnh ea lOU!bTo· jeCls fer before. It do there10 produce. As the Bodies that fi d do d1verllyaflectour Organs, the mind is forced to receive uh~n us, lions; and cannot avoid the Perception of thofe Ideas that t e mpreedf. to them. • are annex CHAP. H. Of {imp!~ Idea's: §. I.TH E better to underlla':'d the Nature, Manner, and Extent of • our Knowledge, one thmg1scarefully to be obferved roncern mg the Ideas we have; and that is, That fome of them are lm•!. d. fome complex. . J" r e, an Though the ~alities that affed our Senfes,. are, in the thin s themfelves, fo un1ted an,d. blended, that there is no feparation, no dilfnce between them ; yet tiS plam, the ideas they prod~tce in the Mind enter by the Senfes limple and unmixed. For though the Sight and Touch often take m from tl1e. fame ObjeCt, at the fame time, different Ideas; as a Man fees at once Monon and Colour ; the Hand feels Softnefs and Warmth in the fame p1cce of Wax: Yet the limple Ideas thus united in the fame SubJeGl:, arc as perfectly d1!l:mct, as thofe that come in by different Senfes. The cold nels and hardncf~, wluch a Man feels in a piece of Ice, bemg as d1ftmfr Ileas m the Mmd, as the Sme(l and Whiteners of a Lily. or as the ta!l:e of Sugar, and fmell of a Rofe: And there is nothing can ~ plamer to a Man, than the clear_and diftinCl: Perception he has of thofe lim pie Ideas; wluch bemg each 10 1t felf uncompounded, contains in it · nothmg ?ut ~ne uniform Appear~tnce, or Conception in the Mind, and is: not di!l:mgUlflJab]c into different Ideas. §.1. 7hcfe fimple Ideas,the Materials of all our Know!edge,arefugge£1:edand ·~rndhed to the Mmd, only by thofe two ways above mentioned, 'tm, Senj at1on and RejleHron. When theUndcrfianding is once fiored with rh:fe lim pie !deaJ, It has the Power to repeat, compare, and unite them even to an almoft mfimte Vancty, and fo can make at Pleafure new com-plex 41 |
