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Show .Adequate and Inadequate Ideas. Book II. ~ .. Secondly, Our complex Ideas of Modes, being v.oluntary Col!etli-ons o) f ru mp Je l'a·,a s • which the Mind puts toge.,t_h. er, Witho1ut reference tod an real Archetypes, or ftanding Patterns, cxuung an:r w Jere, are, an ca~not but be adequate ideas. Becaufe they not bemg mtended for C..o-ies of Things really exifiing, buf fqr ,Archetypes mad? by the Mmd,. to ~1nk and denominate Things by, cannot want any tlung; they hav1ng each of them that combination of Ideas, and thereb~ that )'crfcawn the Mind intended they fhould: So that the. Mmd acqmefccs m them, and can find nothing wanting. Thus by havmg the fdta of a F1gure, With three fides, meeting at three Angles1 I have a compleat Idea; ,whercm I require nothing elfe to make it perfect .. That tk Mmd IS fanslied W1th the perfection of this its Idea, is plain, m that 1t doe; not conce1ve, that. any Underfianding lwth, or can have a more cpmpleat ?r perfect Idea ot that thing i,t ~gnifies by the word Tnangle, ftl,pp.qfing It to ~x1!l, ,than it felfhas in that complex Idea of three S1des,. and three Angles. tn \1 luclt . is contained all that ic, or can be dfent1'il to. 1t, , d(l\ecelfary to compleat it, where-ever or howe-eve~ 1t ex1fis. B~t tn our ldeas of Subfianc~s, It is otherwife. For there definng to cdpy l:'lungs,:ls ~hey really do ex1fi , and to reprefentto our felves that Conftitution, on wh1chall the~r Properttcs depend, we perceive our Ide•s attam not that Perfectwn.we mtend : We find they fiill want fomething we lliould be glad were tn them; and fo are all inadequate. , But m1xed Mo,des ,and Relanons , bem11. ArchetypeS without Patterns, and.fo h~vmg nbtlung to reprefent but thf!nfelvrs, can· not but be adequat~ ever}' thing bemg fo to 1t felf. He that at lir!l put togethe~ the Jd~a ofDanger perceived,' abfence of diforder from Fear, fedate confidehtioJ of what was jufi(y to be done, 'and executing of that without difiurbance, ·or being det~rred by the dan~er'?f i~ , had certainly In his Mind that complex Idea made .lip oftha,tCoinbl~auon , :, and mtending irxo be nothing elfe,but what it 1S; nor to have 10 1tanyother ~mple Ideas, but what it hath, 1t could not alfo liut be an adequate Idea.: and laying this up in his Memory, with the nar:'e Co¥ral.' annexed to 1t, to lignifie it to others, and denom!nate fr_om thence .any A awn he flJOuld obferve to agree wit/1 it, had thereby a Sta~dard to meafure and denominate Actions by, as they agreed to it. Th1s Jd'" thus made, andla1d up for a Pattern, mull necelfarily be adequate, bemg referred t? nothmg elfe but it' (elf, nor made by any other Original, but the Good-!tlnngand Wt!l of him, that fir!l made this Combination. . . . 9. 4. Indeed, another coming aftor, and 111 Converfat1on !earmng from him the word Coura)',e, may make an Jd'", to whtch he g1vcs that name Courag,, different from what the firll: Author applied it to, and has 111 h1s Mind when he ufes it. And m th1s cafe, 1f,he deflgns, that h.s Idea 111 Thinki~" fl1ould be conformable to the other's Idea, as the Name he ufes in fp.;.king, is conformable in found to his, from whom !'e learned it, his Idea may be very wrong, and mad<!<Juate .. Becaufe m th1s cafe, rna· king the other Man's Idea the pattern of h1s Idea m tlunk111g, as the other Man'~ Word,or Sound, is the pattern of IllS m fpealnng , Ius idea IS fo fur defective and inadequate, as it is di!lant from the Archetype and Patten~ he refers it to,and intends to exprcfs and figmfie by the·n,ame hcufes fo~1t · which name he would have to be a lign of the other Mans Idea,( to w!uch, i~ its proper ufc, it is primarily annexed,) and of his own, as agreetog to it: to which if his own does not exactly correfpond, it IS faulty and tn· aae<tUatc. . .Chap. XXX. Adequare and Inadequate Icteas. §. 5'· Therefore thefe complex Ideas of Modes, when they are referred by the Mmd, and Intended to corrcfpcnd to the Ideas in the Mind of fome other intelligent Being, ewrelfcd by the Names, we apply to them, they may h very deficient, wrong, aod inad~quate. Becaufe they agree not to that, whic11 the Mind dcfig~s to be their Archetype, and Pattern: !" wh1chrefpetl:only, any Idea of Modes can be wrong, impcrfeot, or 10adcquate. And on th1s account, our Ideas of mixed Modes are the moll: !table to be.f.1ulty of any other: but this refers more to proper Speal<ing .than Know1pg nght. . ~.6.1/urdlj, IVIJat Ideas IV/! bave of Srnlj}ances,I have above n,ewed: Now rhofe Meas Have in the 1\ojind a double reference: 1. Sometimes they arc referred to a fuppofcd real F./fence of each Species of Things. 2. Some· ttmes \hey are only defign'd to be PiCtures and Reprefentations in the Mind,ofTf1ings that do exifr, by Ue,,s that are difcovcrable in them. Jn ~rh which ways, thcfe Copies of their Originals, and Archetypes, are 1mpcrfeCl: and inadtquate. Ftr}l, It is ufu~l for Men to make the Names of Sub fiances, fiand for 'nungs, as (uppcfCd to have certain real Elfences,whereby they are of this or that Spec1es: And Names llanding for nothing but the Ideas that are irt Men's Minds, they mull confequent!y refer tl1e~r I dear to fuel; rca!EJren~ s,as to their Archetypes. That Men (efpecially fueh as have been brC):Iup ·~the Learningtaught in this part of the World) do fuppofe certain CjJecifick Elfences .of Subfiances, which each Individual in its feveral kind is made conformable to, and partakes of, is fo far from needing proof, that it ":ill bethought llrange if any one fl10uld do otherwife. And thus they ordinanly apply the fpectfick Names, they rank particular Subfiances under, ro Things, as di!linguifl1ed by fuoh fpecifick real Effences. Who is there almofi, who would not take it amifs, if it flJOu!d be doubted, whethrrhe cal!'d himfelf Man,with any other meaning than as having the real Ilfence of a Man 1 And yet if you demand, what thofercal Eifencesare,'tis plain Men arc ignorant, andlmow them not. From whence it follows, that the Ideas they have in their Minds, being referred to real Elfences as Archetypes which are unknown, mull be fo.far from being adequate, that they cannot be !uppofed to be any reprefentation of them at all. The complex Ideas we have of Sub!lances,are,as has been fl1cwed, certain Colletllons of ~mp!e Ideas, that have been obferved or fuppofed conframly to exill together. But fuch a complex idea cannot be the real Elfence of any Subllance: for then the Properties we difcover in that Body, would . depend on that complex Idea, and be deducible from it, and their necef· fary connexion with it be known; as all Properties of a Triangle depend on, and, as far as they are difcoverable, arc deducible from the complex Idea of three Lines, includmg a Space. llut it is plain, that in our complexld< as ot Subllances, are not contained fuch Ideas, on which all the otber ~ali ties, that are to be found in them, do depend. The common fd,a Men have of Iron, is a Body of a certain Colour, Weight, and Hard· nefs; and a Property tint they look on as belonging to it, is malleablenefs. But yet this Property has no necelfary connexion with that complex/de,,, nor any part of it: and there is no more reafon to think, that mallcablcnefs depends on that Colour, Weight, and Hardnefs, than that that Colour, or that Weight, depends on its malleablenefs. And yet,though we lmow nothing of thefe real Elfences, there is nothing more ordinary, than that Men.Jhould attribute the fons of Things to fuch Elfences. . The part. cular parcel of Matter which makes the Ring I have on my Fmgcr, IS .forward!)', by mofi Men, fuppofi:d to have a real Elfcncc, whereby it is Gold, 173 |